Night Stalker
by MysticShadowWanderer
Summary: Kenshin's the most elite assassin for a crime syndicate. Kaoru is visiting her friends. When the two cross paths, things are set in motion that can't be undone. [AU][KK]
1. The Angel Of Death

Night Stalker  
  
MysticShadowWanderer  
  
Disclaimer: The lines are drawn in the sand across the caress of time.  
  
Whee! Pre-stroy A/N!: Ok, this one's just for fun. Truth is, the entire reason I wrote this is to be able to picture Kenshin driving an Enzo and wear black and a trenchcoat ^_^ That said, please enjoy!  
  
*****  
  
Chapter One: The Angel of Death  
  
"It's a dangerous game you're playing, Battousai. One mistake, one tiny mistake, and your life will be forfeit."  
  
Himura Kenshin, known by night and victims as Hitokiri Battousai, sighed and ran a hand through his crimson bangs as he recalled the words of his "colleague," another one of scores of faceless, nameless thieves, counterfeiters, and murderers. Sometimes he wondered why he did this, why he didn't just quit, leave the syndicate entirely. Then he reminded himself that he had nowhere to go and nothing else to do. And every time he killed, the ecstasy of feeling flesh, bone, and muscle tearing and cracking under his blade, or the beauty of blood and smell of gunpowder, was what tied him down. There was no escape for him now. He couldn't say that he wasn't doing well, though; these days, crime paid, and well.  
  
The Ferrari Enzo he parked alongside the street was proof enough of that, as well as the way he parked it so carelessly. Material belongings were replaceable; he didn't like to worry. He stepped out of the car, and tossed his katana on the passenger side floorboard; it leaned itself against the seat suspiciously, so he removed his black leather trenchcoat and draped it across the seat and the sword. The fact that it wasn't exactly legal to carry around weapons like that didn't bother him, there was always someone to pay off that would turn their head, but the last thing he needed was for some punk to try to steal his most prized possession. Things like that were valuable anymore, not to mention "cool" enough for some half-wit kid to try to snatch.  
  
He had left his car a respectable distance from his destination, which happened to be a nightclub. Though he was an assassin by title and nature, that didn't mean he didn't like to have a good time, after all, he was only twenty-four. Although, to him, a good time generally meant sitting at the bar drinking and, if he was lucky, getting in a few fights. He was the typical lone wolf, unless joined by his only real friend, Sagara Sanosuke, in which case they might find other means of entertainment. Street racing, illegal gambling, or just good old fashioned knife fights, Himura liked anything dangerous enough to be life threatening.  
  
As he walked, he wondered if Sanosuke had beaten him there. When he heard the tolling of the clock's bell, it was only midnight. He grinned; that left plenty of time to give the city hell tonight. A slight chill ran up his spine, the cold weather getting to him even through his thick black sweater. Even so, he knew he'd soon be too hot wearing clothes like that in a club. Walking past the line of people waiting to get in and the bouncers, they knew him, this was one of the syndicate's clubs, he stepped inside to be assaulted by music loud enough to threaten to make his ears bleed. Ignoring the fact that his heartbeat felt like it had just changed to keep tempo with the pounding bass and throbbing floor, he pushed his way through throngs of people and sat down heavily on a barstool next to a tall, spike-haired man.  
  
"Sanosuke!" he shouted. "Nanika shi masho!"  
  
Sanosuke turned to look at him. "Konbanwa Kenshin! Doko–"  
  
"Hey chaps, English if you would!" The bartender called in their direction.  
  
"Sorry, man, you know how it is," Sanosuke said amiably, they were both friends with the man, or at least as much as you could count a bartender as a friend.  
  
"Sure, sure," he said, setting a Vodka in front of Kenshin. "I like to know what's going on at my bar."  
  
Kenshin nodded his thanks for the drink and turned to Sanosuke again. "What's the plan for tonight?"  
  
"You wanna try out that new little car of yours?"  
  
Kenshin snorted as he tossed back the drink in his hand. "Yeah, a V12 and 660 horses says it's little."  
  
"Hey man, it's an easy five grand or so," Sanosuke shrugged.  
  
"You're kidding."  
  
"Not a chance, some rich kid and his dad's money. I'd say take the opportunity while you've got it. Guy's only eighteen, he's new. If you don't win I'd give you the cash myself, your odds are that good."  
  
"Tell him to bring his car and his money out to the freeway and I'll show him how it's done. How long can you have the road blocked?"  
  
"Long enough."  
  
"Damn British teenagers, never know what they're in over their heads."  
  
Despite his words, Kenshin had so far enjoyed his stay in London. The culture was different from his native Japan's, and he found himself amused by all the trouble he could cause. It wasn't as if he'd had a choice anyhow, if the syndicate wanted him to go somewhere, off he went. Eagerly taking the new glass the bartender handed him, he spun around to watch the dance floor. You never knew when you'd see someone interesting.  
  
***  
  
"Kaoru? Hey Kaoru, snap out of it!" Her friend snapped her fingers in Kaoru's face. "Who have you been staring at for the past fifteen minutes, anyhow?"  
  
Kaoru pulled her friend away from the group of people dancing to lean against an open space on the wall. "That man, the one with the long red hair and cross-shaped scar who's all in black."  
  
"You've been in London for three days and already have your eyes on the most gorgeous and most notorious man in the city?" Kaoru laughed. "You know he's from Japan, too?"  
  
"Really? Is that so..."  
  
"Don't go after him, I've heard some nasty things about that man."  
  
"I was only going to talk to him, maybe."  
  
"You haven't got the nerve."  
  
"Sure I do." With that, she walked off to the bar, leaving her friend in a state of temporary shock.  
  
Kaoru slid onto a barstool right next to the redhead's. The bartender handed her the strawberry margarita she'd ordered before stopping to take a closer look at her.  
  
"Hey Himura, this yours?" he asked. Kaoru gaped for a second, then flushed.  
  
The redhead, Himura the bartender had called him, looked where the man was gesturing, clearly expecting to find some dropped article and was stunned to see a young woman sitting there. He quickly took in her embarrassed countenance, as well as he delicate features, and shot a glare at the bartender, whose attention had suddenly turned to wiping dry a few shot glasses that had conveniently appeared. Shifting his attention back to the girl, he decided to act on his suspicions.  
  
"Hajime mashita. Watashi wa Himura Kenshin desu. O namae wa?" He sounded polite enough to Kaoru; perhaps her friend had been making things up.  
  
For a moment she was flustered before she pulled herself together. "Kamiya to moshi masu. Kaoru."  
  
He smiled gently, seeing how nervous she was, and began to answer before the bartender cut him off. "What did I say about Japanese, Himura?"  
  
Kenshin sighed and apologized, saying something vague about arrogant English types and psychotic Brits; Kaoru giggled. She was amazed at how well things had worked out for her. As a general rule, she never said anything to a man before he addressed her, so it wouldn't have been likely that she would have talked with him if not for the rudeness of the bartender. She could feel her friend glaring at her from across the room.  
  
"So, what brings you to London?" he asked.  
  
"My friend invited me." She turned and nodded to the girl that stood at the wall.  
  
"Yours?" Kenshin asked, and when Kaoru assented, he caught the other girl's eye and waved slightly, chuckling quietly as her face went red and she not-so-subtly slipped away.  
  
"That was mean!" Kaoru exclaimed while trying not to laugh.  
  
"Sorry, I couldn't help myself." He grinned and they both burst into laughter.  
  
They sat in easy silence as Kaoru sipped her margarita and Kenshin had a few more shots. Kaoru had been watching him nearly the entire time he'd been there and was impressed to find that though he'd been drinking nearly the whole time, he didn't seem even slightly intoxicated. When she turned her attention elsewhere, he took the opportunity to observe her. Her long black hair was tied up, making him wonder what it would look like if it were down. She was attired in a tight fitting red halter top that didn't quite reach the top of her short black leather skirt, and heavily buckled black boots that reached to just below her knees. Instantly he knew there was more to her than she let on; she had some edge, but was hiding it from him. This was, of course, intriguing, so after a few more minutes, he tapped her lightly on the shoulder. When she looked at him, he smiled, stood, and held out a hand.  
  
"Want to dance?"  
  
***  
  
When Sanosuke returned to the bar, he was more than a bit surprised to find that Kenshin wasn't there. He asked the bartender, who just inclined his head toward the dance floor. Sano's mouth dropped open when he saw his best friend actually dancing. He sat down with a thud, rubbed his head with one hand, and met the bartender's gaze.  
  
"I think I need a drink."  
  
***  
  
Kaoru was hesitant at first, not that she had never danced with anyone before, but there was something about Kenshin that made her heart race. Soon enough, though, she began to get the feel of the music and couldn't help but let herself go with it. Where Kenshin's touch before had been light, when he felt her become more comfortable, he tightened his hold. All at once her back was pulled to his body and his hand was low on her stomach, tracing the exposed skin and toying with the hem of her top. As if of its own will, Kaoru's hand traveled upward to his head, fingers winding into his hair and staying there as she moved into his touch.  
  
Sanosuke turned again to watch his friend. "Holy fucking shit," he said softly. "What the hell does he think he's doing?"  
  
"I believe that would be called dancing," the bartender offered.  
  
Sano shot him a glare. "I know that. But you know who he is, what could happened if he gets involved..."  
  
The bartender nodded sagely, also being a member of the syndicate, though one of the lower tier members. He'd much rather have been out doing jobs like the two men he'd been giving drinks to all night, but he just didn't have the skill and so was stuck slipping free alcohol to the syndicate's most prized assassin and his self-proclaimed accomplice. Life did so seem to hate him.  
  
Glancing back at his friend, Sano couldn't help but watch the way the two moved sensuously against each other. It was as if they already knew one another, which was a bit odd. Even though he saw people dance like that all the time, it seemed so strange when it was Kenshin. After staring at him long enough, Sano caught Kenshin's attention and merely raised an eyebrow, a gesture which Kenshin returned. Laughing, Sano raised his glass in a mock-salute.  
  
'Damn. He IS going after her. This could be bad... Have to admit, though, the man is slick. She doesn't look remotely drunk.'  
  
Kaoru didn't know if she could keep dancing much longer after at least ten minutes straight. Kenshin seemed to sense this and took her by the hand, leading her back to the bar. The bartender, seeing them coming, had already poured Kenshin another round. He downed it quickly before peeling off his now far too heavy sweater to reveal a simple black v-necked t-shirt. Kaoru looked him up and down and, still breathing slightly heavily, asked if he wore anything but black. Chuckling, he told her that he generally didn't.  
  
"Hey, one more round, my friend, before I call it a night," he said to the bartender before glancing at Kaoru. "Want one?"  
  
"Uh... sure," she said uncertainly. "Don't you think you've had quite a bit already?"  
  
Kenshin laughed outright as he handed her a glass. "Yeah." He shrugged and tilted his glass to his lips, draining it promptly. "I'm used to it."  
  
"You should see this man drink," came a voice from the side.  
  
"Sagara Sanosuke, Kamiya Kaoru," Kenshin said by way introduction. The both nodded to the other and Kaoru cautiously sipped at her Vodka.  
  
"Not used to it?" Sano asked, and she shook her head. "Someone's gonna have to teach you to drink sometime. Normally I'd offer Kenshin's services to ya, but the man's gotta be sober enough to drive in..." He checked his watch. "An hour and a half. You gonna be ready to test that car by then?"  
  
Kenshin mimicked Sano and looked at his wrist watch, which read 1.36 AM. "Of course."  
  
Kaoru vaguely got the idea that they were talking about car racing, which was something she had previously had no experience with. Naturally, the idea was fascinating. She knew a little bit about cars, but not much.  
  
"What kind of car is it?" she asked as she took a seat.  
  
Kenshin was surprised that she was even interested. "Enzo," he said absently.  
  
Her eyes grew wide and she whistled softly. "Jesus..."  
  
Sanosuke smiled. "My sentiments exactly. The big surprise is this, though... it's black."  
  
Kaoru laughed and Kenshin tried to glare at him, but was unsuccessful. He grinned sheepishly and shrugged as if to say 'What can I do?'  
  
"So, do you race for money?" she asked nonchalantly.  
  
Kenshin was floored for half a second, but recovered valiantly. "Uh... yeah."  
  
She smiled. "You much be good."  
  
"I do alright." She knew what that meant; he was VERY good.  
  
"Hmm."  
  
"Kaoru!" her friend called and made her way over, refusing to meet Kenshin's eyes. "We're getting out of here, put that drink down and come on!"  
  
"Right," she replied, somewhat reluctantly, turning to leave.  
  
"Hey," Kenshin said, grabbing her arm. "Give me your number, and I'll teach you how to drink sometime. Promise."  
  
Blushing, she scribbled her cell phone number on a napkin and he pocketed it. "See you around, I guess," she said with a wave as her friend dragged her away by the arm.  
  
Cold air hit them as they burst outside, and they immediately stopped. Her friend looked as if she didn't know whether to laugh or berate Kaoru. She started saying something about drinking with strangers and how dangerous she'd heard he was, but Kaoru stopped her.  
  
"I'm sure it will all be fine can I borrow your car?" she said quickly, all in one breath.  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
"Do you think you can get a ride? I'd really appreciate it if I could borrow your car, just for tonight."  
  
"I can't believe you..."  
  
"I'm twenty-three, I can take care of myself. Please?"  
  
"Oh for Christ's sake... Yes, yes. But please, don't get yourself lost or hurt. I trust you, you know." She tossed Kaoru her keys.  
  
"Thank you so much, I promise I won't wreck it or anything." With that, Kaoru took off, carefully checking up and down the street for cars and then crossing and hurrying off to where they'd parked.  
  
'First thing, find an Enzo. No hard. The hard part is following without getting caught.'  
  
***  
  
"Hey man, chew some gum or something," Sanosuke said. "You may not act or even be drunk, but you sure as hell smell like it."  
  
"Right, right," Kenshin waved it off as he tossed a piece of gum in his mouth. "Happy?"  
  
"You know where I'm parked, right?" Sano ignored his comment. Kenshin nodded. "Swing around and meet me, and you can hand me whatever illegal shit you got this time."  
  
"Sure." they split ways and headed for their own cars.  
  
The two had a deal of sorts. Kenshin did the majority of the racing with Sanosuke acting as his "manager." Sano would set up races and then find one of his ingenious ways to block the road they'd be using. More or less, he'd do all of the work save the actual driving. In return, however, they split whatever money Kenshin won, and if the police happened to show up, Sano ran for it and only Kenshin got caught. That was the reason Kenshin would stow anything that he had that happened to be undesirable for an officer to see in Sano's trunk. If he was going to be arrested, he might as well make the charges as simple as possible.  
  
"Only the katana this time, Sano," Kenshin said, handing him the sword almost reverently. "You let anything happen to this and I will personally slaughter you."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know." The threat fell on deaf ears. "Hey buddy... I'm not one to tell you how to drive, but watch out for this kid. I hear he likes to try to run the other guy off the road. Wouldn't want to mess up your pain job."  
  
"He'll have to catch me first, what's he drive?" Kenshin grinned.  
  
"Some kind of souped up Corvette. Nothing you can't handle."  
  
"Straight shot?"  
  
"Yup, simple and fast. Just punch it and don't forget to stop before you hit my road blocks. You've got this one."  
  
***  
  
It was more than convenient that Kaoru saw Kenshin drive past; headlights off, she followed, feeling just slightly foolish. She sat outside the parking garage he drove into and waited, not really sure what she'd do next. Sanosuke came out first, his odd hair unmistakable, and headed off down the road. Kenshin would follow soon, she knew, ans so she devised a quick plan. Pulling forward quickly, she completely blocked the exit. She groaned as he suddenly appeared from around the corner; he looked angry enough to kill. Slowly she stepped out, yanking the keys out of the ignition and tucking them into the pocket of her leather jacket. Kenshin's eyes widened when he recognized her. Throwing his cars into park, he jumped out and stood in front of her, arms folded across his chest.  
  
"And just... what... are you doing?" he said, his voice bordering on a low growl.  
  
"I'm not moving," she said firmly, jutting her chin out in defiance.  
  
"Why would that be?" His tone was slightly strained.  
  
"Not unless you take me with you." Even Kaoru was shocked to hear herself say that; that wasn't what she'd been planning. Then again, what had she been planning in the first place?  
  
"You... I... wait... what?!" He was dumbstuck.  
  
"You heard me, take me with you."  
  
"Do you possibly know how very dangerous that is?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"You're lying."  
  
"I know... I could be arrested, injured, killed," she said as if it were an everyday matter. "You only live once, right? Please?"  
  
"You'll move the car?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"You won't turn me in, or even tell anyone about this?"  
  
"No."  
  
"You'll accept full responsibility for anything that happens?"  
  
"Absolutely."  
  
He sighed heavily. "Alright. Move your damn car."  
  
Kaoru nodded happily and quickly moved the car to park on the side of the road. Making sure to lock it and put the keys safely in her inside pocket, she slid into the passenger set of Kenshin's Enzo. Silently, she admired the interior, restraining the compulsory urge to reach out and press some of the many buttons. Kenshin handed her his huge leather trenchcoat.  
  
"Hold this, if you would be so kind." He was starting to sound slightly less angered. "And for Christ's sake, put your seatbelt on."  
  
Kaoru couldn't help but smile. "No problem."  
  
"Do absolutely everything I say."  
  
Kaoru looked insulted. "Of course! It's not as if I would force you to take me along and then not listen to your instructions."  
  
"Sorry," he mumbled, finally breaking down and smiling at her. "It's just that I've never let anyone else ride with me when I race."  
  
"Then it's an honor to be the first." Kaoru attempted a grand bow, but it wasn't very feasible.  
  
"Enough talk, let's get going," he said, and let the engine rumble back to life. He swung out of the parking garage and roared down the street in the opposite direction of Sanosuke.  
  
"Jesus Christ," Kaoru muttered. "Th thing's got enough power to haul about ten horses."  
  
Kenshin grinned. "But why trailer livestock when you can fly?" His tone was serious, almost solemn.  
  
"I'd never thought of it that way..." Kaoru mused. "Racing means a lot to you, doesn't it?"  
  
"Yes," he said simply, before reaching for the stereo. "You like American music?" He deftly changed the subject.  
  
"I don't really listen to it much, I guess," she replied.  
  
"Do you mind?"  
  
"No."  
  
He pressed a few buttons and loud rock music came blaring out at them; he turned it down to a more tolerable level.  
  
"What on earth is this?" Kaoru asked.  
  
"Band called Shinedown," he replied. "I like the lyrics."  
  
"Where the hell'd you get this?"  
  
"Part of the perks of my job, I can get pretty much whatever I want. I just took to American rock, so I get whatever's good. Satellite radio, you know, I get all kinds of stations." He almost slipped up there, and started talking about his job, but he hoped he'd averted the topic.  
  
Kaoru sensed that he wanted to avoid the subject, so she lapsed into silence. Closing her eyes, she let the music wash over her and listened to some of the lyrics he liked so much. She could see why he did, they had a lot of meaning. Surprisingly enough, for a man she'd been so highly warned of, she found that she liked him and enjoyed being in his company. She had the feeling that he, like the music listened to, had a lot of meaning.  
  
Kenshin looked over at the woman sitting next to him and wondered why he'd let her come. Something about her told him that she would enjoy the feeling of tearing down an open stretch of road, and appreciate it the way he did. Perhaps he shouldn't have brought her along, but she knew the risks and was willing to accept them. He wasn't sure what it was about her plea that had left him unable to deny her. It just seemed right that she was here beside him. Easily handling a corner which he took at a speed far too fast, he found the familiar freeway entrance.  
  
Kaoru opened her eyes as she felt Kenshin's gentle breaking. She smiled; even though he drove too fast and pushed his car to its limits, he was still trying to take care of it. In a strange way, it was sweet. The sight that greeted her was somewhat thrilling. A small group of people clad in expensive clothing was clustered around what looked like it used to be a Corvette.  
  
"Poor car..." she murmured. "He killed it."  
  
Kenshin laughed aloud. "What a monstrosity that is."  
  
Kaoru nodded. "That's practically screaming 'I race my car illegally.'"  
  
Kenshin shot a grin at her and flipped off the music as a teenage boy with dark blonde hair leaned in the now open window.  
  
"You gonna let her ride with you, mate?"  
  
"Yes." Kenshin's tone was instantly superior.  
  
"Then let's get going."  
  
***  
  
Sanosuke could hear the roar of two powerful engines from where he stood. Silently, he prayed that Kenshin remembered to fill his tank recently, seeing as how the man loved to drive absolutely everywhere. Distant shouts could be heard as two cars were thrown into gear and two gas pedals were slammed to the floor. Sanosuke timed it. Less than a minute, he estimated.  
  
"They sure as hell better not hit my barriers, I'll kill 'em both."  
  
***  
  
Kaoru's heart jumped to her throat as Kenshin hit the accelerator. Her hands were twisted in his trenchcoat and vaguely, in the back of her mind, she thought that he was right, that it really was flying. The terror she had originally felt was bubbling into laughter, but she held it back, thinking it better to give him nothing to concentrate on besides driving.  
  
Because he was concentrating so much on driving, he was correct in thinking that the kid would never catch him, Kaoru heard the screaming sirens and saw the flashing lights long before he did. He was pushing 150 when he heard her.  
  
"Oh, shit." Her voice was quiet and grave, which was how he could tell that it was bad.  
  
He listened for a second before putting the breaks on. Tires squealed and he fought to keep them going straight as he assessed the situation. The kid had freaked, slammed on the breaks, and spun out. He would be in cuffs within minutes.  
  
"What do you want to do?" he asked quickly. "We can either try to run or get taken in."  
  
"Your choice." He found it hard to believe that she trusted him so much when she barely knew him.  
  
Sano was long gone, so there was no longer a roadblock, but Kenshin knew that highspeed chases seldom turned out well. They'd be caught eventually if he didn't play his cards exactly right. One tiny mistake and everything would go wrong. That was all the assurance he needed as he floored it and took off down the freeway. That small chance was what he lived for. Kaoru said nothing, just leaned back and offered him a supportive smile.  
  
"Looks like we're stuck with each other for a while."  
  
*****  
  
A/N: Wasn't that fun? I know I had a good time writing it ^_^ I've started work on chapter two, but I'm both busy and grounded, so don't expect me to have it posted TOO soon. I'll try, I promise. Also, I'm open to suggestions, so if there's something particular you want to see happen, let me know and I'll consider it. Whee! Time for the happy dance! 


	2. Tear Off Both My Wings

Night Stalker  
  
MysticShadowWanderer  
  
Disclaimer: No one bites back as hard on their anger, none of my pain can show through.  
  
*****  
  
Chapter Two: Tear Off Both My Wings  
  
"The trick isn't to outrun the police, but to outsmart them as well," Kenshin had said and they pulled into a dark corner of a parking garage.  
  
The two sat in silence and complete darkness, for Kenshin had hurriedly thrown a black drop cloth over the car. Kaoru bit her lip as she listened to the sirens go past, then slowly fade away. She couldn't help but laugh in relief; this had been the strangest day of her life.  
  
"Where exactly are we?" she asked.  
  
"A parking garage located... somewhere?" Kenshin suggested. "I can guarantee that we're still in Britain."  
  
"Well that's a comfort," Kaoru said. "Especially as Britain's an island."  
  
Driving at the speed they had been had eaten away the miles, neither one could be totally sure exactly where they were now. That was, however, going to be the least of their problems once their friends got a hold of them. Kaoru groaned quietly, she was going to be yelled at for days over this one. Kenshin leaned back and crossed his arms behind his head, shutting his eyes.  
  
"We might as well get some sleep, at least a half an hour," he said. "We're going have to lie low for a while, with all the people who were there and all the records the police already have on me, they're bound to know it was me." He sighed and tugged at his hair. "Katsura is going to kill me when I don't report to him in the morning. And Sano's got my katana..." Suddenly he stopped, realizing just who he was talking to. It felt safe to tell her, somehow, but he knew that the second he did, they'd both be in danger. What was it about this woman?  
  
"Katana?" she questioned.  
  
"I'm starting to collect them," he lied quickly.  
  
"Are you trained in kenjutsu?"  
  
He grinned; he wasn't called Battousai for nothing. "Yes."  
  
"Interesting... Do you have a particular style?"  
  
He paused for a moment, she obviously knew at least a bit about kenjutsu. As he was the only one currently using his style, if she knew it, she might know who he was.  
  
"Hiten Mitsurugi."  
  
He heard her go still. "Christ..."  
  
'Shit,' he thought. 'She knows.'  
  
"Hitokiri Battousai... who would have thought he was such a kind person."  
  
Kenshin's eyes flew open. What had she just said? Perhaps he owed her an explanation now that she was effectively stuck with him. His name was infamous, but he'd strived to keep himself from truly being discovered. He felt like hitting himself; he should have known better than to tell her the name of his sword style. He sighed heavily and tried to make out Kaoru's face through the darkness.  
  
"I'm afraid you're going to have to stay with me now," he said. "It's bad for business, you know, to have people know who I am."  
  
Kaoru reached out and found his hand with hers. "I think... I understand."  
  
"You do?" He retracted his hand from hers with some reluctance. What did she want from him? He was the notorious hitokiri Battousai, yet she wasn't running and didn't seem scared.  
  
"'Full responsibility,' right?" It was rather a rhetorical question. "I told you that no matter what happened, I'd accept the consequences. Shouldn't that apply to knowledge gained through my own curiosity?"  
  
"I suppose..." he ruminated. "I'm really bit si bad as the stories make me out to be," he added, just on the chance that she was afraid.  
  
"Not in day to day life, at least," she returned. "I'd already figured that out. I trust you, there's something safe about you," she said suddenly. "I can sense it."  
  
"Woman's intuition?" He couldn't help but grin, his tension at the situation already beginning to melt away with her acceptance of his "alternate persona."  
  
"Maybe just intuition," she replied offhandedly.  
  
The answer she gave him was perplexing, to say the least, but he let it drop. Somehow it didn't seem right to ask too many things of her, she was so trusting that he couldn't bring himself to do it. Kaoru attempted to look at her watch, but found the darkness too complete to allow her to see the face. The action didn't slip past Kenshin's notice, and he checked the time on the glowing face of his phone.  
  
"Shit." It was well past dawn, which would make it more difficult to get from whatever garage they were in to whichever apartment of the syndicate's happened to be nearest. They generally owned four or five scattered in each city large enough to be on a map, used for meetings or situations just like this one. With a sigh, he reached under his seat. Kaoru watched with avid interest as he removed a cloth-enfolded rectangular item, and gently eased his door open. The light assaulted her eyes when he flung off the drop cloth and set her to blinking furiously.  
  
Kenshin looked around and quickly set about changing the plates. If there was one thing he never had and never would be called, it was "unprepared." In his line of work, not having counted on every possible outcome before started could be the difference between life and death, and Himura Kenshin was most certainly not pleased by the idea of dying young. He made swift work of the task, not wanting to be caught in the act.  
  
"Well, that's a temporary solution to one problem," he said as he rejoined Kaoruin the car. "We have to find out where we are; that shouldn't be too difficult."  
  
Kaoru yawned and nodded as he started the engine and made his way out of the parking garage. They drove around aimlessly for a few minutes while Kenshin got his bearings. Soon, he dryly informed Kaoru that they were in Kingston, which he estimated to be around twenty kilometers outside London. He reached for his phone as she let the information sink in and tried to picture the city on a map.  
  
"Sano," he spoke into the phone. "Yeah, I'm fine. I've got Kaoru with me. She knows." There was a long pause. "I know, I know. We're in Kingston, and I need the apartment locations." Another pause. "Yeah, thanks. Take care of my katana, won't you?" Kaoru assumed Sanosuke had agreed, because there was no yelling on Kenshin's part.  
  
With a groan, she remembered that she would have to make a call herself, and pulled out her cell phone. "Hope it's in range," she muttered as she dialed. "Hello? Yes, it's Kaoru. I've sort of gotten myself into a bit of a mess... I'm afraid I won't be back for a while." Kenshin tried desperately not to laugh as Kaoru held the phone away from her ear with a grimace while her friend yelled obscenities at her. When the screaming died down, she tentatively said, "I'm fine, don't worry, and your car's alright." She gave her friend directions to get her car, reassured her that everything was fine several times, and hung up.  
  
"That didn't sound good," Kenshin said wryly.  
  
"It wasn't."  
  
"She'll cool down eventually."  
  
"I can only hope. Where is it that we're going?"  
  
"There's an apartment just a few blocks from here that I've got access to. We'll have to stay there a few days at least. It depends on how things go."  
  
Kaoru nodded and let the conversation drop; she needed a few minutes to think about all the things that had happened so quickly in the past night. It took them much longer to get to the apartment complex than it usually would, Kaoru suspected, with Kenshin driving at legal speeds. She had to hand it to him, the man was intelligent, if not downright brilliant. It wasn't hard to believe that he was a master assassin.  
  
Kenshin tried hard to keep himself from staring at Kaoru. The woman, to be frank, amazed him. She had fire and kindness at the same time, and somehow she'd managed to see him as he really was, not just as a hitokiri. Most of all, she understood the meaning of freedom, of flight. Something within him had already claimed her as his, even this early..  
  
Kenshin parked the Enzo in a small lot behind a respectable-looking apartment complex. Kaoru helped him gently slide the drop cloth on, but he dove back under. He emerged holding a rather impressive CD collection.  
  
"I have a feeling we're going to need entertainment."  
  
***  
  
The apartment, unlocked by a keypad code that Kenshin quickly typed in, was sparsely but efficiently furnished, and was completely, totally, and starkly white.  
  
"No expense was spared on this," Kaoru commented sarcastically.  
  
"Simple and effective," Kenshin replied. "But boring."  
  
Kaoru wandered toward the kitchen, hoping to find at least something to snack on; she hadn't eaten since her small dinner the day before. She was ecstatic to find the cupboards and refrigerator stocked with various food items from around the world. She grabbed a bag of chips and went to see what Kenshin was doing. She had plenty of questions for him. Kenshin was busy making the beds in the two rooms of the apartment, which Kaoru found to be surprising and mildly amusing.  
  
"Do you cook and do laundry as well?" she asked teasingly.  
  
"Of course." She couldn't keep herself from giggling. "It seems rather necessary that I be able to."  
  
She choked back her laughter and sat at the foot of the newly made bed, patting the spot beside her as an invitation for Kenshin to sit as well. He complied readily and she held her bag out to offer him some chips. He took a handful and sat chewing thoughtfully.  
  
"So, is this place yours?"  
  
"No, the business I work for owns it."  
  
"I thought as much... It's far too white for you to own it." She grinned and he raised his eyebrows at the indirect insult.  
  
"I'd have a bigger TV," he replied flatly. Kaoru burst into laughter.  
  
"I have a feeling it's going to be interesting to stay with you," she said.  
  
***  
  
The two soon found that the linen closet's top shelf was occupied by various board and card games. After losing too many hands of rummy to count, Kaoru beat Kenshin spectacularly at Scrabble.  
  
"It hardly seems fair that you can count a word you didn't actually know existed," Kenshin commented.  
  
"But pupilfish is word, even though I wasn't aware of it!" Kaoru exclaimed.  
  
"I still think –" Kenshin was cut off by the ringing of his cell phone. "Sorry," he said before he answered.  
  
"Katsura-san?" he said tentatively. This couldn't be good. "But..." he was interrupted. Kaoru tried not to listen to his end of the conversation, but it was difficult. "I don't think..." He was having a hard time getting a word in edgewise, this Katsura seemed to be very insistent about something. "Sorry, sorry..." He paused. "Yes, I understand. Goodbye." With a sigh, he flipped the phone shut.  
  
"What's wrong?" she asked, having noticed his frequent glances at her during his phone call.  
  
"This is going to be difficult to explain..." he began. "I'll fix dinner and we can talk about it while we eat."  
  
He left Kaoru to clean up the pieces of their forgotten Scrabble game while he set about making something simple. She wondered what this was all about; she had a bad feeling about what was going to happen. The feeling manifested itself and settled to the pit of her stomach, where it chewed at her relentlessly until she became worried for both herself and Kenshin. After she unenthusiastically picked up the mess they'd created, she cautiously stepped into the kitchen. She heard Kenshin sigh as he stirred something on the stove one last time and then poured it into bowls. Kaoru couldn't keep herself from smiling; Kenshin had made macaroni and cheese. He attempted a smile at her, but it fell short of being at all comforting. Once they'd seated themselves at the table, he began to explain.  
  
"You're not going to like this, but it's the way it has to be," he started. "For now, just sit quietly and listen." Kaoru nodded. "I'll start at the beginning. You already know I'm called Hitokiri Battousai, and that I'm an assassin. But what you may not know is that I do my work for a crime syndicate called Kuroi Ame. They pretty much own me, but get me out of scrapes like we were in last night. Had I not been able to escape the police, with a phone call I could have gotten a helicopter to pick us up within minutes; they're that efficient. I do what they say, and I'm free to break all the laws I want with relatively few ramifications. It's an odd sort of freedom.  
  
"That's the simple part. When I let you become involved, it seems I opened the door to a whole new world of troubles. My superior, Katsura-san, is now extremely upset, as you may have gathered. Sanosuke told him everything. You know who I am now, and that breaks the syndicate's top rules. Katsura-san has given two choices to me, but I think it's more appropriate that you are given the final decision. I know what I would choose, but in the end, it's up to you. Before you say anything, let me tell you the options. One, you choose to have nothing more to do with me and I'm forced to kill you. Two, you become, from this moment forward, a member of the syndicate and do whatever you're ordered to. Take a few moments to consider."  
  
"Consider?!" Kaoru exclaimed. "What could there possibly be to consider? I don't want to die!"  
  
"Good," Kenshin breathed. "I didn't want to kill you."  
  
"But you would have?"  
  
"It would have been unavoidable."  
  
Kaoru sighed deeply, but reminded herself that she, in essence, brought this upon herself. It seemed like just another part of "full responsibility." She was beginning to hate those words with a strong passion. Kenshin, for his part, looked truly sorry and sympathetic. He really was a sweet man, for an assassin.  
  
"It's hard to believe that I'm a criminal now."  
  
"Not just a criminal, one of the elite," Kenshin said wearily.  
  
"What will they have me do?"  
  
"I don't know, but if it's any comfort, I can request you as my partner. I almost always get what I want."  
  
"Me? Partner to Battousai?" she sounded timorous. "Haven't you always worked alone?"  
  
"Yes, but I got you into this, and I'll help along."  
  
"That's awfully generous of you."  
  
"I like you, you understand me."  
  
Kaoru paused, and Kenshin sensed that perhaps he overstepped unspoken boundaries. He went quiet and silently began to eat his now-cold macaroni; it didn't really have much flavor to him at the moment, so he supposed it didn't matter. Kaoru poked at her food with a fork, but she'd lost her appetite rather quickly. She stared blankly across the table at Kenshin, who seemed to be just as down as she was. She quietly asked why.  
  
"I guess I feel guilty, is all," he said after some consideration. "I like you, I really do, and I've gotten you into one hell of a mess. That and we're going to have to hide out here for a while."  
  
"No racing?" He nodded. "It's that important to you?"  
  
"It feels like they've ripped off my wings," he said in a nearly inaudible voice.  
  
"Kenshin?"  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"I think now's a good time for you to teach me to drink."  
  
He laughed at that, but he knew how she felt. There were a lot of things that the two could stand to put off thinking about for a while.  
  
***  
  
Kaoru was soon throwing back shots of whiskey like she'd been doing it every bit as long as Kenshin had. Pretending that he didn't want to be outdone, Kenshin was drinking two glasses to Kaoru's one, but his real reason was to keep her from getting too drunk. When he started to feel the effects that large amounts of quickly consumed alcohol had, he knew it was time to stop.  
  
"Kaoru if you don't quit, you're going to pass out," he warned in a voice that he hardly recognized as his.  
  
He eased her glass from her hand and set the whiskey aside; to his surprise, she'd held her own fairly well. She'd drunk less than half the amount he had, but was only moderately more intoxicated than him. He chuckled; they were going to regret this when they had to wake up, eventually.  
  
"What's so funny?" she slurred.  
  
"I'm proud of you," he replied as he lurched to his feet from the couch they sat on. "You aren't so completely trashed that I've had to drag your unconscious body out of the bathroom and put you to bed."  
  
She snorted at the image that made as he, swaying slightly, put in a DVD. Flopping back down on the couch, he let himself go limp as he pressed the buttons on the remote, his body telling him that it was past time to get some rest. He wondered briefly about just what movie he'd selected, having randomly grabbed one from the shelf beside the television. He almost groaned when he recognized it as Monty Python and the Holy Grail. They were going to be laughing for hours. Not only had he put in quite possibly the funniest movie ever made by man, they were both drunk. But, when he thought about it, they needed a good laugh after everything that had happened in the past day.  
  
Much as he predicted, they were soon holding their sides with laughter. It felt good, if not amazing, to Kenshin, who hadn't truly laughed in what seemed like ages.  
  
'Imagine, all it took was Kaoru to get me drunk and this stupidly hilarious movie. Why can't life always be this simple? Besides the fact that I'd look like a moron if I was constantly drunk...'  
  
"Mmm, Kenshin?" Kaoru broke into his thought. "What are you thinking so seriously about?"  
  
"Nothing much, just that I should thank you," he replied.  
  
She sat up from where she leaned against the arm of the couch. "For what?"  
  
Kenshin smiled, she was still slurring her speech. He imagined he was, too. "For letting me be myself, that's all."  
  
She smiled and moved to sit next to him, resting her head against his shoulder. "You're welcome then," she said, giggling at the French taunting that was going on onscreen.  
  
Kenshin was a little surprised at her closeness, but, then again, they were both intoxicated, which was a good enough reason to put his arm around her snugly. He liked the way she felt in his arms, it was instinctively right. All his life he'd been trained to go with his instincts, it was part of his job; he smiled. Now he was just making excuses.  
  
"You know," Kaoru said with a yawn. "You're a good man, Kenshin. You really are."  
  
He stared at her incredulously. He couldn't remember the last time anyone had said that to him and meant it. "You can't know that for sure," he replied darkly.  
  
"I can," she continued. "You must trust me when I say that I can. I'll explain later."  
  
Kenshin wondered what that meant, but didn't press the matter. Kaoru was tiring, as was he, and drunk, she could just be talking nonsense. His gut feeling was that she wasn't, but he ignored it for the time being. There would be plenty of time to talk later. Kaoru snuggled into his arms, her fingers lightly clutching the thick material of his sweater. He bit back a groan when he thought of his sweater, remembering that they were both wearing the same clothes they'd been wearing all through the previous day, and it was now nearly one in the morning. He'd have to do something about that when he woke up, though he suspected he could at least find some shirts somewhere in the apartment, the syndicate generally thought of everything. Women's clothing, however, was unlikely, as there were very few women in the syndicate. He smothered a yawn; he'd figure it out later.  
  
Kenshin lifted Kaoru easily and she stirred, opening her eyes slightly. He gave her a smile and shushed her protests that she could walk on her own as he carried her into the larger of the two bedrooms. He set her gently onto the mattress and tucked a blanket around her. He stood looking down at her for a moment, she looked both an angel and a devil as she slipped away to sleep. Just as he was about to walk away, she caught him by the sleeve.  
  
"Kenshin... stay," she said, her voice laced with sleep and alcohol.  
  
"I can't," he whispered. "It's not right, Kaoru."  
  
"Always the gentleman?" she asked. It was meant to be rhetorical. "Just for a while... Please?"  
  
Her voice was so softly compelling that he couldn't find it in himself to deny her. He sat next to her and rested his back against the headboard. Somehow it didn't seem right that things were moving so fast between them, like it was beyond his control. In truth, he would have dearly loved to lie with her in his arms and listen to her breathe, watch her sleep, but it went against his nature to do so this soon, especially when she was drunk. He resigned himself to holding her hand and silently stroking his fingers across it while she sighed in content and drifted off. When her breathing became deep and even, he let go and eased himself up. Stopping to look at her once more, he whispered a quiet "goodnight" before softly shutting the door.  
  
Ignoring the TV which was still on and at the very end of the movie, and the scattered glasses and spilled whiskey, he went to his own room; he could clean it up tomorrow. After removing his sweater and tossing it to the floor, he flopped down on the bed and, without bothering to pull even a sheet over himself, fell fast asleep.  
  
***  
  
Kaoru dragged herself out of bed when her sheets were no longer enough to block the painful light of the sun. Glancing at the clock, she was mildly surprised to fine that it was almost two in the afternoon. She sat up with a groan; she was extremely grateful to Kenshin for making her stop drinking when he had. So much wrong had happened, it was nice to forget about it for a while, but she had to come to terms with who she was now. It wouldn't have been lying to say that she was attracted to darkness and danger, Kenshin was a prime example of that, but becoming a member of a crime syndicate seemed a bit over the top. Still, part of her was excited, though she tried to ignore it.  
  
Flinging her legs over the side of the bed, she suddenly realized that she was still wearing her leather skirt and halter top, which was now dangerously close to falling off, but that Kenshin had apparently removed her boots. A smile crossed her face, he was a very thoughtful man. She wondered what secrets he had hidden underneath his sweet, kind exterior. At the moment, however, all she really wondered if she could get a shower and a change of clothes. Stumbling to the closet, she found close to nothing, but grabbed a towel and a button-down shirt that looked like it had been placed there in case any extremely large men stayed in the apartment. Slamming the door unintentionally, she entered the small bathroom that was attached to her room. Quickly peeling off her clothes, she stepped into the shower with a sigh of relief mixed with content.  
  
From the kitchen, Kenshin smiled when he heard doors banging and the shower starting. He'd been up for hours already, but he couldn't blame her. Humming to the music on the stereo, if a bit off-tune, he turned his attention back to the food he was cooking, which happened to be bacon and scrambled eggs. As he dumped the contents of his skillet unceremoniously onto a large plate, he stopped to think about what he was humming. Music meant a lot to him these days, often expressing the feelings that he couldn't quite get across.  
  
'I'll face the truth when I think I can, try to understand what I love denying.' The thought and line hit him hard, unexpectedly. At times like these, he wondered who he really was. Was kindness and understanding his true nature, or was the cold, detached assassin? Maybe it was a mix of the two, he wasn't sure anymore.  
  
"Kenshin?" Kaoru's voice snapped him out of his deliberation.  
  
He smiled and held out a plate, all the while running his eyes over her as discretely as possible. She was wearing a button-down shirt that fell loosely to her knees, and her still damp hair was braided down her back. Though less revealing than her previous outfit, this somehow seemed all the more desirable, maybe just because it exuded comfort. There wasn't much comfort in his life. In return, she giggled at what he was wearing. He was clad in a pair of navy blue sweats and a white shirt that read "If you looked up 'stupid' in the dictionary, it'd be purely by chance." It seemed he hadn't had many options when getting dressed.  
  
"I made breakfast, or, rather, lunch," he said. "Do you think you can eat?"  
  
Kaoru grimaced, but he got her to eat some eggs, saying that it was unhealthy to go without having at least something. They ate in relative silence, appreciating the music Kenshin was listening to and simply being in each other's company. After a while, Kenshin broke the peaceful quiet.  
  
"Kaoru?"  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"How do you feel?" He meant that on two levels, and she was aware of it.  
  
"Like hell," she replied, stirring her eggs listlessly.  
  
"I'm sorry," he said in a low tone, reaching across the table to take her hand in his. "I really am."  
  
Kaoru couldn't keep herself from silently starting to cry. This was all far too much for her to handle, being a rather emotional person as it was. Kenshin frowned and squeezed her hand gently, it tugged at his heart to see her in tears, she was such a sweet person. When her tears gradually turned to subs, he pulled her up and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly.  
  
"I know how hard it is to accept," he said. "But I promise I'll help you all I can."  
  
"Th-thank you," she sniffed. She sighed quietly and, her voice muffled in his shoulder, said, "Why are you so good to me? You certainly don't have to be."  
  
"I don't know," he confessed. "Maybe because you understand what it really means to be free. I'm not really sure, but since I first met you, I could just sense something about you."  
  
"That's really sweet," Kaoru replied. "I think... I think the feeling's mutual. No, I know it is. Something about you is different and special, Himura Kenshin. I can see it, sense it with everything I am, and that makes me very certain. I don't think I can explain it to you at this moment, but I promise I will. Just like you, I have secrets. I know that you're the Battousai, so it seems only fair that I tell you something of myself. But now isn't the time." She was looking into his eyes with such an earnest, sincere expression that he had to fight the strong urge to kiss her right then and there. Like she said, now wasn't the time.  
  
Slowly, as if he had to think about it, Kenshin removed his arms from Kaoru's warm body. Her hair was still slightly damp, and he hadn't been able to help but notice how fresh and clean she smelled. It almost scared him how much he longed to keep her in his arms and protect her from the world. He'd never had that urge before, the last woman he'd truly cared for had been Tomoe, and their relationship had been vastly different than that. He didn't even like to think about what he'd had with her, and how it had ended.  
  
"Kenshin?" she questioned, seeing the saddened look in his eyes. "Is something wrong?"  
  
"No," he answered. "No, I'm fine." She didn't need to hear about his past right now, for the moment it was enough to just help her through her tangled emotions.  
  
It seemed they'd have at least a week to do so in, as well. Katsura said it would take at least two days for the syndicate's "computer technicians" (the flowery term for hackers) to deal with the police, and Kenshin figured that it would be wise to buffer that by at least five days. It was better to be caged for a week than to be arrested and thrown in jail.  
  
*****  
  
A/N: Chapter three coming soon! 


	3. The Torment Of Confessions

Night Stalker  
  
MysticShadowWanderer  
  
Disclaimer: Disclaimer? Disclaimer THIS! :gives the finger to all the lawyers who would take a copyright case and anyone else who's easily offended, just to piss them off:  
  
*****  
  
Chapter Three: The Torment Of Confessions  
  
  
  
Kaoru listened to Kenshin hum as she folded laundry. She couldn't hide her smile; he couldn't really hold a tune consistently, but he tried. It was almost cute. On the surface, nothing had much changed between them, but she could sense a building tense between them, and she knew better than to second-guess her intuition. She knew there was a mutual attraction between them, and she also knew that neither of them wanted to be the one to push it into something more. She wondered how he would react if she told him the truth, and what it would mean to not only their friendship, but their new partnership.  
  
'I never thought I'd be the proverbial "partner in crime,"' she mused. It was an odd thought, a disturbing thought. She'd always been a law-abiding citizen, how could she handle this? Perhaps she might break, fold painfully under the pressure. Would Kenshin be there to catch her, restore her, or would he ignore her plight and save himself, follow orders blindly? She had to know.  
  
Setting aside the shirt she'd been holding forgotten, she stood and went to talk to Kenshin. He was in his room, lying on the bed with his arms crossed behind his head, eyes closed. Kaoru had managed to get to a clothing store, so he wore a pair of dark blue jeans and a tight-fitting black long sleeved shirt. Pausing just a moment to look at him, she walked in and sat down on the foot of the bed. She heard him shift and felt his eyes on her. For a fleeting moment, she wondered if he liked what he saw; she was wearing a pair of stretch-fabric pants and a soft pink shirt that fit her nicely.  
  
Kenshin smiled at her back; her hair was down, he liked it that way. He sat up and rested a hand gently on Kaoru's shoulder, silently asking what was wrong. They had quickly developed a close bond, and he often felt that she knew what he was thinking, though she was a bit harder to read. Giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, he turned Kaoru's body so that she would face him.  
  
"What are you thinking Kaoru?"  
  
"I... nothing... I was just wondering... that's all."  
  
"Wondering what?"  
  
"Nothing important."  
  
Kenshin refused to her weak deterrents for an answer. He gripped her chin and forced her meet his eyes. Once again he asked her what was troubling her. Kaoru shook her head, unwilling to voice her trepidations, but he was determined to wait her out.  
  
"Kenshin, will you catch me?" she finally burst out.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"If I can't do this, if I break, will you catch me?" she explained as best she could.  
  
"Of course."  
  
Her gaze fell to her hand, which were playing with the hem of her shirt uncomfortably. "What about before, when you said you'd have killed me if you had to?"  
  
Kenshin's eyes widened and she couldn't help looking back into them, they were such a beautiful shade of violet. Kaoru heard him swear under his breath; he was regretting those words right now.  
  
"I... don't know..." he said slowly, closing his eyes to keep from seeing the hurt on her face. "I just don't know. But I can promise you that I'll protect you. I have to be honest with you, we must trust each other. You need to know that I would never want to hurt you, but if I'm ordered to do something... I don't know. I'd like to think that I could find a way out of it. If you break, I will catch you and keep you safe, I'll do whatever I can; that much I can promise to you."  
  
Kaoru reached out to trail one finger down the scar on his left cheek. He was being honest with her, she sensed no ill will about him, only sincerity. Sincerity and heartache, probably pain he never meant to show. She knew he could read ki, so he kept his hidden away, ever the paranoid, but he couldn't slip his emotions and intentions past her. The understanding she had was too deep for that, though probably less refined. She cupped his cheek and bid him to open his eyes.  
  
"You know you can tell me," she said softly. "You can tell me anything; I won't think any less of you for it."  
  
He dropped his gaze. "I don't know what you've talking about," he lied.   
  
"Yes you do," she replied. "I know you do."  
  
"How?"  
  
Kaoru paused; that was an excellent question on his part. They both wanted honesty from the other, but neither wanted to share. Their partnership would quickly fall to pieces if they continued like this. She closed her eyes momentarily, sucked in a deep breath, and took it upon herself to rectify the situation. Perhaps they both feared the other's reaction, didn't want to risk their fragile emotions. But someone had to, if only to make this work, so she would have to do it.  
  
"If I tell you... will you tell me what it is that brings you so much pain?" she asked tentatively.  
  
"I can... try," he responded after a moment. That was enough for Kaoru to continue; he needed to know this anyhow.  
  
"This may take a while."  
  
"Is it hard to say?" he questioned. "You don't have to if you'd rather not."  
  
"I do have to, but thank you," she said. He seemed too sweet to be an assassin. There had to be a dark side to him somewhere. Maybe she'd unleash it someday, if she could.  
  
On impulse, Kenshin took Kaoru's hand and clasped it encouragingly. If she needed to say this, it must be important. Still, she seemed to be struggling with her words.  
  
"Why don't you start at the beginning?" he suggested. "Even if it takes a while, I'm a good listener."  
  
Kaoru gave him half a smile and nodded in resignation. "Okay then. I know this will sound odd, and you might be skeptical, but you must believe that everything I'm telling you is true."  
  
"I trust you," he said. She had admitted the same thing three days earlier, and he had come to the realization that he trusted her as much as she did him. He wasn't sure exactly why, but he thought it had something to do with the heartfelt understanding that shone in her bright eyes. That and he'd taken her flying, to the edge of forever and back, and she had known the exhilaration that came from the freedom of tearing down the road and chasing a dream.  
  
With a small sigh, Kaoru began. "The beginning..." she mused aloud. "What exactly is the beginning is hard to say. I believe that everything happens for a reason, so I don't know just how much I need to tell you. I suppose... I'll just tell you all of it?"  
  
Kenshin nodded and murmured supportive words to her.  
  
"Alright..." she said slowly. "When I was a child, I saw things, heard things. Call them ghosts, spirits, lost souls, whatever you want, but I could see them and hear them in my head. When I told people, they'd laugh and pass it off as an overactive imagination of a child. But it continued well into my teenage years, and my parents finally listened. What you also need to know is that throughout all this time, I had remarkable instincts and intuition, bordering on premonition at times. By the time I was twelve, I was the most feared poker competitor in town, my luck and ability to read faces and feelings was that uncanny. When I was fourteen, I got into a bit of trouble with my skill." She paused and grimaced.  
  
"It wasn't a pleasant time, and I really don't care to recount the details right now. Maybe some other time. Suffice it to say that the spirits had by no means left me along, and were getting, at times, violently demanding in their attempts to communicate with me. I don't escape the incident entirely unscathed in any way, physically and mentally, and that's when my parents decided that I needed some kind of professional help.  
  
"Don't get me wrong, they didn't think I was some sort of freak to be put on medication and watched like a creature in a glass box, but they wanted to find me someone who could understand my situation and help guide and teach me. They found me Takahashi-sensei, who told me, after long discussion, that I was an 'Indigo Child.'  
  
"How Takahashi-sensei described it is someone born with their wisdom intact, not that I was or am wise, but that the knowledge is all there. Basically, I can remember past lives, have a higher sense of intuition and sometimes premonitions, can sense feelings and read people, and can see auras. However, I also can communicate with spirits, which isn't always a good or safe thing. It often scares me, but I try to block them out unless it's completely necessary, for one reason or another, that I speak with them.  
  
"I just... I thought you'd want to know all this. Also, I thought you'd like to know how it is that I could place so much implicit trust in you so easily, and how I can tell that you are in pain." She finished in a rush, watching Kenshin closely to discern any dislike or disgust at her confession.  
  
Kenshin looked to be completely in shock; Kaoru peered closely at him to reassure herself that he was still breathing. He was staring at her incredulously, his mouth slightly agape. Deciding it was better to let him speak first as opposed to trying to draw a statement of some sort from him, she sat quietly staring at her hands, her face hidden by the wall of her hair. After a few very tense minutes of silence, Kenshin swept her hair back over her shoulder and forced her to look at him. She met his gaze reluctantly, and he stared solemnly back at her.  
  
"Thank you, Kaoru," he said softly.  
  
"I... what?"   
  
"I know that must have been hard to tell me, and it's very personal, and it means a lot to me that you trust me enough to reveal all that. Thank you."  
  
"You don't think... You... I'm not..." Kaoru couldn't find the right words to express what she felt, and Kenshin quieted her after a few seconds of struggle.  
  
"On the upside of this," he said with a smile, clearly trying to lighten the heavy mood that had settled over both of them. "Your abilities are of the type that they'll be extremely useful to an assassin and his consort."  
  
He spoke of his job with such nonchalant ease; Kaoru wondered how he could possibly stand even thinking of it that way, much less sharing with someone else. Everyone had a different way to deal with personal traumas, but even so, this was a bit extreme. Didn't it hurt him at all that he held the power of life and death in his very hands? Then again, so did everyone else in the world, it was all perspective. She made a small noise, sort of a humming exclamation, that she often did when she'd come to a revelation. Kenshin smiled at her.  
  
"What is it?" he asked.  
  
"Nothing, I was just thinking," she said; the last thing she wanted to do was bring up a topic that could be as sensitive as this one. Perhaps Kenshin read her unease in her eyes.  
  
"You know, nothing you say can insult me," he reminded her softly. "You're my partner now, in a sense, my best friend. I'm going to look out for you, protect you. I want to know everything you have to say."   
  
Kaoru shot him an appreciative glance before she began to speak. "It's just that... About... you're a hitokiri," she stammered. "I just don't understand. You aren't the type to kill, at least, you don't seem like it. And I don't see how you can stand it, you're such a good person."  
  
"Is that what you read in me when you use your gift?" He asked in a low voice. A strange sort of darkness had weighted itself in his eyes, they were not their usual shade of violet, as if they were changing.   
  
"No," she sighed. "I read shadow and pain, your aura has holes in places. Holes that need to be filled by something. But there is light to your dark, as well, it's there, but hidden."  
  
"I see..." he murmured. "And these... holes... What can they be filled with, pray tell?"  
  
His tone was harsher, he appeared upset. "I don't know," Kaoru admitted. "Not yet."  
  
"I hate to tell you that you're wrong, that despite what I've shown you I am a killer. But it's the truth, and there is no way to deny it. As long as we're being honest, you should know that the personality that I've upheld with you is a far cry from the way I usually am. And I don't know why, which bothers me."  
  
"You like control."  
  
"I demand it."  
  
"As is to be expected." Kaoru was being terribly levelheaded about all this, which surprised not only Kenshin but herself. "You know I'll do everything I'm told," she added.  
  
"I know," he replied, dropping his chin in his hand with a sigh. "As for killing..." It was a subject he wasn't sure he wanted to breach, but knew he had to. "Yes, I do it for money, and yes there's a certain thrill to it, but you have to understand the way the syndicate works. We don't go after normal, everyday citizens, rather, rival syndicate leaders or rich businessmen. Either way, the targets I kill are corrupted, disgusting individuals. I like to think that I'm helping to better society, even if I have to go to such levels to do it. Aside from that, swordsmanship is more than a hobby to me, it's a sort of obsession, and to be able to evoke the full power and beauty of Hiten Mitsurugi, this is all I can do. I'm sorry if that offends your sensibilities, but you'll have to accept it, because this is what I am and what you are to become."  
  
Kenshin paused, and wondered if now was the right time to tell her. Kaoru's eyes spoke of the need to understand, and the willingness to accept what he said, but he didn't want to force too much on her at once. Finally, he decided that it was either show her now or frighten her to death at an inopportune moment.  
  
"Speaking of what I am, there's something you need to know, or see, rather," Kenshin said suddenly.  
  
Kaoru looked skeptical. "What's that?"  
  
Heaving a sigh, he held up a hand. "Just watch." He closed his eyes and fisted his hands tightly, and appeared to be concentrating greatly. With another sigh, he opened his eyes again, they were a silvery blue color. "Do me a favor," he said. It wasn't a question, it was a command.  
  
"What?"  
  
"This is going to sound strange..."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Bite me," he said flatly. "Bite my neck, hard as you can."  
  
Kaoru looked bewildered, but complied. The look in his eyes told her that no arguments would be tolerated. She leaned forward and sank her teeth into the tender flesh of his neck until she tasted blood and heard his breath hiss through his clenched teeth in a pained sound. Looking up, her gaze was met and held by amber hued eyes. She gasped and moved backward; Kenshin caught her arm before she fell off the bed.  
  
"This... this is Battousai," he said, his voice richer and darker than before. Shivers ran visibly up Kaoru's spine.   
  
Kaoru raised a shaking hand up to tentatively touch the skin just next to Kenshin's... Battousai's... eyes in amazement. This was nothing short of a phenomenon, the changing of eye color. After a few brief moments of thought, she decided she liked him this way. This personality suited his aura better, and radiated and impossible amount of self-confidence. This was the man that she could take orders from and take strength from to commit criminal offenses. She was about to speak again when Kenshin's phone rang. People always chose the most inconvenient times to call him.  
  
"Yes?" He said shortly, disregarding formality. "Yes. Of course, Katsura-san. It will be done." And that was all there was to that conversation.  
  
Kaoru watched his expression as he flipped his phone shut and re-attached it to his belt. His face never changed, not once. Even she could not read anything in his emotions or aura; Battousai was a stone of a man. It was something new to Kaoru to not be able to read into a person, and for once, she was glad. Somehow that seemed to be a sign that this was the one person she could follow without question.  
  
"We're leaving tomorrow," he said, interrupting her thoughts.   
  
"What for?"  
  
"I have a mission. You will be assisting me, Katsura-san's orders."  
  
"What... what will I have to do?"  
  
"You do know kenjutsu, correct?"  
  
***  
  
Kaoru spent the rest of the day training in whatever way she could. There wasn't a bokken she could use to practice, but she stretched and meditated to focus her mind. This wasn't the type of thing her father's sword style had been intended for, she couldn't get that thought out of her mind.  
  
'Father did not train me to become a criminal,' she said mentally, though exactly what their mission was, Kenshin wouldn't yet tell her.  
  
After several hours of intense concentration, she decided she needed to take a break, get some rest and food, and lighten up a bit. The only problem with that was that it was rather difficult to lighten up when you were a good, trustworthy woman who was on the brink of committing her first crime. Still, Kaoru knew she had to try. Kenshin had been locked in his room since they'd spoken; he was angry about something, but she wasn't sure exactly what it was. Loud rock music blared behind his door, and she cringed at the noise. She wisely changed her mind, passed by the room, and headed for the kitchen.  
  
***  
  
Lying on his bed, Kenshin was furious. Angry at Katsura-san, at himself, at the world, at anyone but Kaoru. She had quickly become precious to him, and he was irate that anyone, including himself, could have gotten her into this situation.   
  
"I can't believe Katsura-san would make this her first mission, she's not ready yet. He's testing her, and me. I thought he had trust in me..." He glared at the ceiling as he recounted the details of his phone call. "Shit," he cursed as he rolled to his side and pounded his fist into the wall.  
  
Korn was blasting on the stereo, but it wasn't helping to take the edge off his emotions as it usually did. His eyes still flashed amber fire, and his teeth were in danger of chipping under the pressure of his clenched jaw. Out of habit, he stared down at his hands. It was as if he could still see the bloodstains there, and hear the screams of his many victims. The sounds were really starting to get to him, and he often wondered if he was going insane. Then he'd kill again, more out of necessity than desire, although sometimes, even he would admit, that he craved the power of taking a human life. When he killed, the rush that it brought was enough to remind him that he would never be able to stop. Not by himself. There were some things that could take over a man, consume him until he was more machine, or animal, than human.   
  
  
  
The thought made him stop and contemplate. Was Kaoru the one that could help him become human again, become more than a hitokiri that posed as a regular man who enjoyed drinking and racing? Racing was another thing altogether, it was like a fraction of the high that killing gave him; it was freedom and flight but entrapment and hatred at the same time. Fast cars and alcohol had become his last resorts, the only things that kept him from completely losing his mind and giving himself up to the killing.   
  
He didn't like to kill, especially in the beginning. More than anything, he hated killing women. Luckily, the job rarely called for it, not only were there few woman targets, Katsura had a tendency to coddle him, catering to his every whim. Kenshin was grateful for that; he didn't want to have to kill women. Somehow it seemed more wrong, there was just something about striking down someone that was more pure than him. To Kenshin, women had an inherent sense of purity and dignity, untouchable by anything they might get themselves into. Maybe it was just his old-fashioned sense, he was a master swordsman, after all, but it was one of the only honor-codes he had to hold himself to, and he would take whatever he could get.  
  
His honor-code was part of the anger he had with what he was going to have to ask Kaoru to do. But if they didn't do this, Kaoru would be killed and the gods only knew what would happen to him. Though he didn't much care about his fate at this point, the thought of Kaoru's death was so repulsive that it almost made him cry. Almost. Of all the people he'd met, she was the most pure, although he wasn't sure that was the right word to describe it. She wasn't pure in the typical sense of the word, he could tell that much; to live in today's world was to be jaded at a young age, and she'd seen far more than most simply because of her gifts, but there was an innate sense of calmness and wisdom about her that he could only call "pure." Perhaps it was merely indescribable, a knowledge that was beyond human comprehension.  
  
That was why he loathed the thought of asking her to do what he knew he was going to have to command. Still, there were things in life that were unavoidable, and this was one of those things.  
  
***  
  
Kenshin tossed Kaoru's things, which consisted of only two pairs of pants and a few shirts, onto the floorboard of the passenger-side of the Enzo, having left his own behind for some other syndicate member to use. She sat in silence, dressed fully in skin-tight black that allowed her a full range of body movements. Kenshin was dressed similarly, but had added his trenchcoat over top of all of it. Kaoru's breath caught for a moment, he made quite a stunning sight.  
  
It was still light out, only about three in the afternoon, but they had to get back to London, and had a few stops to make on the way to his apartment there. Kenshin navigated his way out of the city and gunned the engine as soon as his tires touched the pavement of the highway. Careful not to drive fast enough to be pulled over, he shifted gears and tore off towards London. Loud music was already washing over Kaoru, he'd let her choose this time, and she'd selected a band he'd introduced her to named Coheed and Cambria. She was attracted to the unique sound and poetic lyrics at once, and closed her eyes to get just a bit more rest; they'd likely be up late into the night. Kenshin smiled over at her sadly; her happiness was soon enough going to be slaughtered.  
  
*****  
  
A/N: Oh dear gods above, how that chapter sucked. I'm massively sorry, I know that chapter was absolutely terrible, but you guys have waited forever, and it took forever to write because of :looks around cautiously::whispers: writer's block... So I put it up anyhow. I know where I'm going with the story, but that chapter just didn't come out well at ALL. Gomen nasai!!!! 


	4. The Art Of Destruction

Night Stalker  
  
MysticShadowWanderer  
  
Disclaimer: Are there angels or devils crawling here? I just want to know what blurs and what is clear to see. Still I can see the pain in you, and I can see the love in you. And fighting all the demons will take time. It will take time.  
  
*****  
  
Chapter Four: The Art Of Destruction  
  
When Kaoru woke up, she found herself lying on a black leather sofa with Kenshin's trenchcoat draped over her. With a smile, she stretched and sat up, peering curiously around the room. The walls were a deep wine hue; she grimaced at the thought of someone having to paint over that color. The floor was adorned with large, comfortable-looking pieces of leather furniture and sharp-angled, shiny marble tables; this was obviously Kenshin's apartment. She settled back into the substantial padding of the couch; somehow, this was just what she'd expected he'd live like.  
  
After a few moments of studious observation, she couldn't help but wonder where Kenshin was. She thought about looking for him, but she didn't want to just wander around his home, opening doors that she wasn't sure she was allowed to open. Add to that the swallowing ease of the couch she laid on, and the idea of getting up and searching for Kenshin simply wasn't as pleasing as the idea of lounging and waiting for him to come to her. Closing her eyes, she laid and listened to the sounds of his apartment, breathing in the rich, leather scent of the sofa. She could also smell the cologne that Kenshin wore, so she assumed that he spent a lot of time sitting here. The television in the room was positioned where it could be easily seen from the spot she was in, so she guessed that this was where he relaxed.  
  
Just as she felt herself drifting back to sleep, warmed by the thick cushiony couch and Kenshin's scent, she heard the door open. Kenshin said something to her, but, in the state between dreams and reality, she didn't hear it properly.  
  
"Mmm?" she questioned wordlessly.  
  
"I said, it's time to get going," he replied as he pulled his trenchcoat off her body and slipped into it. He had to bite back a smile when he felt her warmth transferring from his coat to himself.  
  
With a sigh, she pushed herself up and opened her eyes. Taking in Kenshin's appearance, she froze for a moment. His katana now hung at his side, and, with eyes trained in self-defense, she recognized under the leather of his coat what could only be a gun strapped to his other hip. The brightness of his hair was partially covered by a black bandana, although his ponytail, which was now tied at the nape of his neck, still showed, contrasting sharply with the black of his entire outfit.  
  
"I brought you something," he said quietly, reaching behind the couch for whatever it was he'd gotten while she was asleep.  
  
Kaoru's eyes widened when he placed a sheathed katana in her hands. Not sure exactly what to say, she simply stared at it. It was a remarkably beautiful piece, she admitted as she grasped it by the hilt and slid it out of the sheath a bit. In perfect condition, it was ready to be placed on display. Or to be used to kill. Her eyes roamed over the blade that glinted in the lamplight, to the purple and black hilt that seemed to fit her hand so perfectly. Not even bothering to ask where he got it, she stood and unsheathed it completely, holding it up to gauge the weight compared to the bokken she was used to. It was considerably heavier, as was to be expected, and she felt infinitely more deadly, just holding it, than she ever had in her life.  
  
"You're going to need that," Kenshin said darkly as he she re-sheathed the katana. He produced a nine millimeter from seemingly nowhere in his trenchcoat and handed it to her.  
  
Kaoru didn't ask questions as he took it from her hands and deftly strapped the katana and the gun at her hips in the same manner his were. They stood looking at each other for a moment. It was odd to Kenshin how this seemingly innocent woman could look so alike to the hitokiri Battousai. After their few seconds of silent reflection, he motioned that they were to leave. Kaoru grabbed her jacket from where she had earlier found it on the floor and quickly slid into it. It wasn't nearly as impressive as Kenshin's trenchcoat, she mused, but it had a slightly similar effect. As a pair, they were entirely conspicuous.  
  
***   
  
They stood on the rooftop of a small warehouse-type building, outlined by the moon and blending in with the dark of the night. Kenshin's hand was restlessly running over the hilt of his katana, and Kaoru wasn't sure what to make of it. She could practically see the tension rolling off him in great waves; he wasn't pleased with the task at hand, she could tell. He glanced at her and motioned for her to step nearer.  
  
"You know kenjutsu, so I trust you can take care of yourself," he whispered in her ear. "I'm sure you've factored in the weight of the katana, and you know what you'll need to do to wield it. It may look innocent enough, but this place is a favorite hangout for a smaller crime syndicate that's been getting in the way of the Kuroi Ame. We have to find their leader, and eliminate him. There's going to be guards posted everywhere, and you have take them out before they get you, or you've practically handed them your life. Kaoru, do you know what that means?"  
  
Kaoru nodded and swallowed hard. She knew the exact implications of every word he'd just said, and he knew that she was aware of what she was expected to do. "I will, Kenshin."  
  
He sighed quietly and wrapped his arms around her in a quick hug. "You know I would never have made you do this if I could avoid it? I'd hoped Katsura would be content with you as backup for smaller jobs he asked me to do, but it seems he wants to test us both. If you don't do this, he'll have you killed because you disobeyed orders."  
  
"I know. It's not your fault."  
  
"Let's go then." Kenshin's eyes flared amber suddenly; he had to protect her, whatever the cost.  
  
***  
  
They slipped silently down a dark hall; Kenshin had swiftly slain the guards at the back entrance. Kaoru was quickly becoming numb to it all, she was acting on automatic and letting her senses and instincts take control. As they approached a door, Kenshin glanced over at her and she nodded at him. He turned the knob slowly, both of them flattening their bodies on either side of the wall. Kenshin's free hand gripped the hilt of his katana tightly, while Kaoru's were both occupied by the weight of the unsheathed katana in her hands. Kenshin caught her eye and mouthed the words 'I'll go first,' to which she nodded again. Adrenaline hummed through her veins, and she was beginning to feel the heady exhilaration of a situation so dangerous.   
  
Suddenly, Kenshin flung the door open and darted in, soon escalating to a speed so great that Kaoru could hardly see him. Not to be left behind, she followed quickly, and met an intimidating sight. Kenshin was in the center of the room, surrounded by what she estimated to be between twenty and thirty tall, strong-looking men. They had a wide variety of weapons, but the only she feared were the guns she saw. Though she and Kenshin were both wearing bulletproof vests (he'd insisted on the highest precautionary measures), they were neither of them invincible, and bullets were nearly impossible to dodge. At least for her.  
  
A few of the guards soon spotted her and broke away from the group. One of them began to draw a sword, but she never gave him the chance to test his skill against hers. In one quick movement, she shoved her katana into his stomach and yanked it free again, spinning in a move that she'd most certainly never been trained to use by her father, and lashing it out again to slash through another man's chest. When two of the other men reached for the guns she saw on them, she darted forward and cleanly severed one's head, and then dropped the katana with a clatter and pulled her own gun. Her father, who had been ever the paranoid about his daughter's safety, had made sure that she was instructed in handling firearms, and she silently praised him for it as she put a bullet between the other large man's eyes.   
  
Kenshin had easily finished off the other men in the room with only a few gunshots and a bit of quick footwork and swordplay, and he had watched Kaoru silently as she shot the man without hesitation. He motioned her on with his hand, and she swiftly grabbed her katana from where she'd dropped it, sheathed it, and followed him. It seemed as if they'd found the majority of the guards, but Kenshin wasn't planning on waiting and finding out if there were any others. If there were, they'd certainly be there quickly after hearing the gunfire.  
  
Kicking open the door adjacent to the room they were in, Kenshin saw what looked like an empty office. As Kaoru joined him at his side, they both looked at each other; they knew better. Jerking his head for direction, Kaoru assented with her eyes and they split paths, each going around the opposite side of a large oak desk in the center of the room. They found a tall, skinny man cowering under his chair, contorted into a position neither had previously thought possible. Fear did a lot to a person, it seemed. Kenshin, who had gone fully into the depths of the madness that called upon him to kill, kicked the man in the ribs with force.   
  
"Come out and die like a man," Kenshin growled.  
  
The man whimpered, and refused to budge. Kenshin kicked him again, this time harder.   
  
"You disobeyed my orders," he hissed through his teeth. "You will die slowly."  
  
Before the man had a chance to respond, Kenshin heard the click of a gun being cocked and, as he started to turn toward Kaoru, he heard her fire, louder than usual because he was so near to her. His eyes widened incredulously; he'd assumed that she would have limited her killing to as few people as possible.  
  
"If he had to die, Kenshin," she said quietly. "You didn't have to draw it out."  
  
Kenshin blinked his amber eyes once, but he let the comment pass with no counter. He supposed she had a point, and, at this time, he was ready to do anything for her. At least at the moment; this was her first mission, after all, and even he had to admit, it was much more difficult than anything he'd been asked to do during his first few months with the syndicate.  
  
"Let's get out of here," he said as he heard the stomping of feet on the nearby stairs. "We've lingered longer than we should."  
  
With no further ceremony, he grabbed Kaoru and tossed her over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing more than a schoolchild's backpack. She was stunned into silence, and held her tongue as he ran back out the door they came in, retracing their steps. Amazed by the speed, which she hadn't known was even humanly possible, she squeezed her eyes shut as the halls started to blur together.  
  
Kenshin darted around corners and up stairs with as much ease as if he did so every day of his life. Kaoru's weight was enough to slow his speed, but by the time he heard the shouts of dismay from the area where they'd killed the leader of this particular organization, they were once again standing safely on the rooftop. Gently setting Kaoru on her feet, he watched her as she looked down at the glowing city below them with a pensive look on her face, her brow crinkled in deep concentration. He estimated that they had a few more minutes before they had to get down to the ground and make their escape, it would take that long for the security inside to get their act together and form a plan of action, Kenshin knew that much from working with security teams in the past. For the moment, it was enough to simply observe Kaoru and wonder what she was thinking.  
  
"It's so ugly," she said softly after a while.  
  
Kenshin's eyes followed the sweep of her arm to look out at the glittering lights of the metropolis. He'd never thought of it that way before, having always taken the electric glow for granted and never looking past the beauty of the lit city to see what it really meant. And even though he had a vague idea at what she was trying to express, he asked for her to clarify anyhow. Sometimes, he just liked to hear her say things.  
  
"Think of how many people it takes to have a city this huge, with so many lights," she replied to his question. "Just think about how much pollution, how much corruption and infidelity lives down there. Now look up at the stars."  
  
Kenshin obeyed. "They don't seem like anything special to me," he said as he gazed upward.  
  
"That's exactly my point," she returned. "There's so much light pollution from this city that it's dimmed the stars."  
  
The way she said it was strangely sad, as if she was speaking from within a memory that she wished she hadn't left behind. Life was strange that way sometimes, Kenshin decided. You go through so much, and then you die, unsure of where you're going or what will happen. And the small things, like the brilliance of stars on a clear night in the country, are forgotten. Kaoru sighed heavily and he looked at her again.  
  
"What we did tonight," she said. "That was ugly, too."  
  
Kenshin gave her a cheerless smile and took her hand in his. "I know. But you can feel it too, can't you? The inexorable force that drove us to this end?"  
  
"Yes." Her voice was low, almost bitter. "I can feel it. All too well I can feel it, and I don't like it."  
  
Kenshin stared at her for a moment, but caught the opening of the single door to the rooftop in his peripheral vision. Swearing quietly, he tightened his hold on Kaoru's hand and they ran to the corner of the building, followed by shouts and gunshots from the guards that could only see two black figures escaping into the night. When they reached the edge of the roof, Kenshin glanced at Kaoru, who nodded, and he swept her back into his arms and did the only thing he could. He jumped. Kaoru closed her eyes and clenched her jaw, holding her breath only to release it when they hit the hard metal of a fire escape with a loud, resounding clanging sound. Kenshin put her on her feet and they hurriedly scurried down the ladder to the motorcycle that was waiting in the alley for their arrival.  
  
Jamming the key into the ignition and turning it with fury, Kenshin waited only until he was sure Kaoru had a firm grip on his waist and then spun the bike and took off out of the alley and down the road. The motorcycle was a small sport bike, which made it easy to maneuver and even easier to weave a winding trail that no one would be able to follow. Kaoru clung to him as if it could save her life, all the while muttering about how she most certainly did not like motorcycles or any vehicle that didn't have four wheels and seatbelts. A smile made its way onto Kenshin's face as he listened, and he increased his speed, just slightly, to feel her arms wrap more tightly around him.  
  
Kenshin accelerated all at once as he hit open highway, causing Kaoru to gasp and bury her face in his shoulder. He frowned slightly, but didn't slow until the exit ramp that was just a few minutes from his apartment building. When he gently eased their speed Kaoru lifted her head and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Still having said nothing, he pulled the bike into the parking spot next to his Enzo in the garage and pulled the key from the ignition. After the roar of the engine and the crying of the wind in their ears, the garage sounded strangely silent, the quietude seeming to press in on them until Kaoru felt it was necessary to break it.  
  
"Did I really... just do that?"  
  
Kenshin turned his back to her as he answered, so she couldn't see the cold amber of his eyes that spoke of stoic approval and newfound interest in her. "Yes."   
  
The subject was dropped with the finality of his answer, and the two walked in uncomfortable muteness to his apartment. Unlocking the door, Kenshin held it open for Kaoru, who acknowledged the gesture with a short nod. Following her and bolting the door behind him, he wondered how affected she was by the actions she took that night. With a glance at his watch, he realized that it was just a little after three in the morning. Katsura would expect a full report in the morning, not only from him but from Kaoru as well, since she was now under his command. He sighed as he jerked the bandana from his head and ran his hand through his bangs. Discreetly, Kaoru watched the movement from the corner of her eye. It was a habit of his, but suddenly she had the desire to be the one running her fingers through his flame-like hair; she wasn't sure exactly why.  
  
Discarding the thought, she stripped her jacket off, set her katana and gun on a table, tossed her shoes next to the door, and tiredly flopped down on the sofa. Kenshin dropped himself into the space right next to her after letting his trenchcoat and weapons fall carelessly to the floor; she felt comforted by his closeness, his conscious action showing her that he was there to reassure her if she needed it. Stretching her arms out with a yawn, she settled her legs over his and he, without truly realizing it, reached out and began to rub her feet. Just as she was closing her eyes and giving herself up to sleep, the full realization of what exactly she'd done hit her as if someone had taken an aluminum bat to her heart. She sat bolt upright with a choked sob. Kenshin didn't look overly surprised, he'd been expecting this to happen sooner or later, and had counted on "sooner." As she hunched over and began to cry, he scooped her into his lap and held her close, rocking her gently.  
  
Still in full "Battousai-mode," which brought to light the more dominate and passionate aspects of his personality, he was having a difficult time denying the impulse to take her lips with his in a fierce kiss. Her tears and sorrow were nothing short of endearing to him, but he restrained himself to letting her cling to him as she wept into his chest. She cried for several minutes until her breathing slowed to a few dispersed gasps and she allowed him to wipe her cheeks dry. With a remorseful sigh, she sank down against him, resting her head on his shoulder.  
  
Kaoru watched Kenshin's expressions carefully; she wondered why he hadn't kissed her. He couldn't hide from her the fact that he wanted to, even while she was crying she could sense his emotions. She doubted the fact that he didn't realize that she wanted him as well, what with his ability to read ki. Suddenly she smiled, albeit a small and slightly melancholy expression of joy; he was holding himself back, afraid of hurting her or throwing her already tremulous emotions more off-balance. Though she didn't like to be the one that took the initiative, it simply went against her nature, tonight she decided to take matters into her own hands. It was a time for new experiences, she thought with a grimace, remembering the men she'd killed.  
  
Slowly, cautiously, Kaoru moved to press her lips against Kenshin's neck. He tensed, froze under the whisper-soft touch of her mouth. Feeling his reaction, but also sensing the spike in his emotions, she continued, brushing kisses up his neck to his ear. He made no response until she bit not-so-lightly at his earlobe. With a quiet groan, he turned her in his lap so that she was straddling him and quickly placed a hand behind her head to pull her mouth to his. Kaoru wrapped her arms around his neck as his hands skimmed up and down her back.  
  
Though in the back of his mind, a voice of reason was telling Kenshin not to push things too far too fast, he was in the end only a man. The quickly dying voice was telling him the 'Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu is founded on self-control.' To that he readily responded 'So what? Fuck off,' and his saner side was effectively silenced. Kaoru moaned and he slipped his tongue into her mouth to brush against hers. He was falling fast; he'd felt a growing tension between them since the moment they'd met, and it was rapidly escalating to a point where he thought he might break. As her hands tangled into his hair and pulled out the rubber band that was holding it in a ponytail, he crushed her to his chest.  
  
Kaoru reveled in the sweet, fierce possessiveness he was showing her. Though he'd said it many times before, she now fully understood his promise to protect her and guide her. Leaning back into the couch cushions, she pulled him with her until he rested his weight overtop her body. Grabbing a handful of his hair, she yanked his head down for another kiss. After just a few moments that were not at all fulfilling, he drew away from her, shaking his head. They were both panting as he sat up with a pained expression on his face.  
  
"Not yet Kaoru," he said in a thick voice. "Not so soon."  
  
She gave him a pouting look and he chuckled. Standing up completely, he held out his hand to her and she took it reluctantly. He led her through a few doors until they reached a bedroom.  
  
"I've only got one bedroom," he explained. "You can sleep here and I'll take the couch. You can go through my drawers and find a shirt to sleep in."  
  
If she didn't already know how extremely comfortable his sofa was, she would have protested. As it was, she nodded and simply began peeling off layers of clothing. He groaned and turned his back.  
  
"Don't do that," he said as he pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead. "Goodnight."  
  
Kaoru gave an impish grin to the wall opposite where she stood as he exited the room with the click of the door. She sighed almost wistfully as she thought of how very sweet he was, and opened one of his drawers to find a neatly folded t-shirt which she immediately drew over her head. Sliding open a few more drawers, she stopped with a thoughtful look, and then shrugged to herself. After slipping a pair of his navy-colored boxers over her underwear (she had a strong suspicion that he wouldn't mind in the least), she turned down the thick covers of the bed and tucked herself in.  
  
Giving a mighty yawn, she turned onto her side and pulled the blankets over her tightly, breathing in Kenshin's comforting scent as she closed her eyes. She fell quickly into a restless sleep.  
  
Blood. There was so much blood; it was everywhere. The metallic scent threatened to overtake Kaoru's senses, and she felt nausea sweep over her in a rush. She fought it down with big, gasping breaths that did nothing but more fill her lungs with the odor of the gore around her. Bodies, twisted and crumpled, were in the streets, seeping crimson where they lay. There were too many people lying dead for her to even conceive counting. She looked about in repulsion, trying to stifle the urge to scream. She cried as she stood in the center of the carnage, sobbed to herself. When she looked down, she saw that she held her katana, which was covered with blood. Staring at it, she suddenly realized that she had killed all these people, that there was no one to blame but her. As she stood, rain began to fall. But the rain ran red, streaming into the streets to join the blood of the dead in a crimson river that swept over Kaoru and overtook her. Dropping her katana, she attempted to swim, but just as she would surface, hands grabbed at her ankles, pulling her back under. When she came up, she saw Kenshin, standing on the banks of the macabre flood, wearing an expressionless face. She reached for him, but he didn't see her, and she slipped away, choking and sputtering until the blood filled her lungs and everything stared to go black...  
  
Kaoru sat up with a gasp, sweat dripping down her brow to mingle with her tears. She rocked her body back and forth as she hugged herself. Throwing herself out of the tangle of sheets and blankets, she slipped out the door and down the hall, looking for the kitchen. It wasn't difficult to find, even though the apartment was large, and she soon found what she sought after. Sitting at the table, she didn't even bother to pull out a glass as she took a long drink from the bottle of whiskey that sat in front of her. She drank until she'd finished half the bottle, and she felt warmly numb. She could sleep now, she decided. But instead of stumbling back to Kenshin's bedroom, she headed toward his television room where he was soundly asleep on the couch with the TV quietly playing in the background. Crawling under the blanket next to him, she wrapped and arm around his waist and slipped her legs among his. With a quiet sigh, she closed her eyes and fell asleep just as she felt his hand come up to stroke her hair.  
  
Kenshin heard her come into the room, but kept his eyes closed as she settled her weight next to his. He held back his smile as she pulled herself close to him, but his happiness was quickly forgotten when he smelled alcohol on her. Why had she been drinking without him? He decided to ask in the morning; for now, it was better to just let her sleep. When she seemed like she was comfortably slipping away, he moved his arm to run his fingers through the ebony silk of her hair, stroking her head until he, too, grew tired and fell quietly asleep.  
  
*****  
  
A/N: Wow. A major "Aw" moment right there... I'm loving writing this story. And by the way... for all you who also read The Devil's Workshop, I'm working on it. I've been stuck a lot lately on all my fics... Probably because it is, indeed, fics instead of fic. I should only write one at a time, but you know what? I don't care! Whee! Ok... yeah... it's 12 AM, and I have school in the morning. Damn. I hate school. I mean.... no... I LOVE school. :coughhackwheezeyeahright: Anyhow, I have a lot of nonsensical shit to do tomorrow, so I'm going to leave you with this. Oyasumi nasai! ^_^ 


	5. Hopeless Little One

Night Stalker  
  
MysticShadowWanderer  
  
Disclaimer: Now seriously, what IS the point of a disclaimer? Think about it for just a second, if you would. This story is posted on FANfiction.net. Point? Yeah... it goes to me. I win. Damn I'm awesome... :cough: O_o  
  
*****  
  
Chapter Five: Hopeless Little One  
  
"Kenshin... I killed them. I killed human beings with my own hands. This blood that stains my skin, my soul, it can never wash clean."  
  
Kaoru's clear statement was made blurry by Kenshin's still-wakening mind. After a few minutes of silence to allow his brain to begin functioning at its normal, alert level, she repeated herself. She sat by his side, while he was still lying on the couch. Staring at her, an almost blank look on his face, Kenshin could do nothing but gape. She'd killed only a fraction of the amount of men that he had, and already she could identify with his innermost feelings and anxieties. Then again, she was the type of person that felt emotions tenfold stronger than anyone he knew, so perhaps he should have expected this all along.  
  
"Kenshin?"  
  
Without a word, he reached up and pulled her down to him, silently urging her to stretch her legs out by his and allow him to hold her close. Cradling her head against his chest, he pressed her to him as firmly as he could, until she could scarcely breathe. She hoped with all her heart that he would never let go. Wrapping her arms around his thin waist, she hugged him to her; they seemed so close that it would be impossible for her to move toward him any more, but she had never let something as trivial as an impossibility stop her before.  
  
"Kenshin..." She wasn't aware that she was speaking until the name that had quickly become so very precious to her passed her lips.   
  
"Kaoru?" His voice was whisper-soft, he seemed to be struggling with his emotions.  
  
Hearing the question along with the weakness and need of reassurance in his voice, she tried to think of something, anything, to say to him. "Just... hold me, Kenshin."  
  
She felt his smile where his lips were pressed to the top of her head, and was pleased to know that she could bring him at least some shade of happiness. Still, she wondered what could possibly bring such hesitation to his voice, before he'd always spoken of killing and crime in a banal tone, as if they meant nothing to him. What bothered him certainly had to be something more than that.  
  
"Kenshin, what's wrong?"  
  
"It's a long story, sweetheart," he replied.   
  
Kaoru smiled at his endearment. If one were considering rationally, it should have been odd coming from an assassin from a crime syndicate, but when thinking of him as Himura Kenshin, it was completely natural. Perhaps one part of him was able to shut himself off and kill, murder other human beings in cold blood, but there was another part that was sweet and emotional, the part that made her bed and did her laundry, that cooked meals for her and played board games. She found herself falling in love with both parts. She wanted him as a whole, not just in separate, confused personas. Suddenly she found herself wanting to be the person to heal him, fill the holes in his aura until he was complete, whether he become light or dark. These things took time, she reminded herself as she gently stroked his hair, coaxing him to tell her his tale.  
  
With a groan and the stretching of cramped muscles, Kenshin sat up, pulling Kaoru with him. If she wanted to know his past, he would share some of it. But not all of it. Though she was in no way stupid or naive, she knew far too much about the ways of the world simply because of what she was, he still felt the need to protect her from evils, even his own. The thought was mildly entertaining, because before he'd met her, he'd treated humanity in general with a sort of aloof disdain. Within the space of a few weeks, she'd changed him. For the first time in his life, he was able to connect with someone. A frown came to his face; no, it wasn't the first time. This was the second. The first had been Tomoe...  
  
"It's only fair," he murmured, absently stroking Kaoru's hair.   
  
"What is?" she asked.   
  
Kenshin gave a start; he hadn't realized that he had been speaking aloud. "It's only fair that I tell you about my past, because you told me yours."  
  
Kaoru nodded and waited for him to begin his story. With his eyes closed and his arms around her loosely, he slowly started to divulge things to her that he'd never told anyone.  
  
"My parents died when I was very young," he said softly. "I was taken in off the streets by a man named Hiko, who was not much for caring for children. He saw some kind of strength in me, I'm not sure why, and began my training in Hiten Mitsurugi. He was never the fatherly type, but I was too busy in the rigorous torture that he called training to ever really need a father. I suppose I grew up too fast, but that is the way of the world, it seems. I respected him, out of fear mostly, I think, but when I was young I had all these ideals. I wanted to help craft a better world... less hatred and crime, that sort of thing. By the age of fourteen, I had the brilliant idea that I wanted to go into the police force. Of course, at that age, there was no way I could join ranks with them, so I took the next best offer.  
  
"Thinking back, it wasn't the best offer, or even a good one, but it was masked as one. Kuroi Ame keeps an eye on everything in this city, and I was no exception. Though Hiko tried to hide it, I had talent with a sword, accuracy so deadly that it was like to an art form. The syndicate, of course, was intrigued by my skill, and soon came to me to offer me a position in their lower ranks. At the time, I wasn't completely aware of what they did, and when they promised that I would make a difference, I gladly accepted. They didn't tell me that this difference would be a one-man increase in crime, but they didn't lie to me. Katsura-san has never lied to me, and I respect him for that.   
  
"At first, not being old enough to drive and make my own getaway, I was trained in weapons, handed a gun, and sent out mostly on what was referred to as 'stealth missions,' meaning that, basically, I would go in as a normal teenager and do the syndicate's reconnaissance. Typically I posed as a kid that just wanted to buy drugs, and I generally wasn't found out. Though I don't like to admit it, working for Kuroi Ame paid well enough to actually purchase the drugs; I got high on nearly a daily basis. Now, in hindsight, I think I was just lonely. I was a kid still, even though I was mature enough to work with adults, and I had no friends my age. Not to mention the fact that the few people I considered my friends would have thrust me into death's arms just to buy them a few more breaths.  
  
"When I was just a few days shy of getting my driver's license, my cover was blown while I was at a rival syndicate's headquarters. Forced to do the inevitable, I gunned down half a dozen men before escaping on foot. After that, the syndicate decided that I was ready for the assassination missions that they'd been planning for me to do since I joined them. Thus began my life as a hitokiri; not much has changed.  
  
"Only one thing changed, really. I believe I was about nineteen when I met Tomoe. She was one of the boss' daughters, I can't remember who now. Apparently she took some kind of interest in me, and we quickly became close. She was really the only person before you that I had any kind of real human contact with, that I ever shared anything with. I haven't seen her since my twenty-first birthday. I think she may be dead." His fingers trailed over the scar on his left cheek. "Her fiancé, whom I was unaware she had all that time, gave me the first part of this scar, when I killed him. That was just before my birthday. I'm not sure whether she found out or not, but either way she finished the cross on the night of my birthday in a rather violent moment of intimacy. I woke up the next morning and she was gone. No note, no phone call later, nothing. I haven't heard from her since, and her father was assassinated, so I have no way of knowing.  
  
"For two years I was scarred more deeply than just this stupid mark on my face. Now that I've gotten over the loss, I abhor the thought of seeing her again. She was so sad, she almost never smiled. Though I thought I loved her, I think I loved the idea of having someone to depend on more than I did her. I don't think I was even capable of love at the time, I was too unstable and filled with blind hatred.   
  
"Since then, I've just been a hitokiri, killing who and when I'm told to. I took up drinking, gambling, and racing to fill the void Tomoe left, and I've found that those habits are hard to leave even when I don't need them anymore. Besides, who said I couldn't have a little fun while I'm going through life?" He gave her a half-grin that soon faded. "I don't have many of my youthful ideals left, do I?"  
  
Kaoru sat quietly as she contemplated everything he'd just told her; she knew he'd glossed it over, sugarcoating the pill to make it easier for her to swallow. Maybe it wasn't quite that much, she decided, he just hadn't gone into detail. She couldn't be angry at him for that when she'd done the exact same thing. Reaching up to tuck his hair behind his ear and tug gently at his bangs, she brushed her fingertips across his face.  
  
"You're not such a bad person at heart, Kenshin," she said gently. "Everyone loses their sense of direction, themselves... everyone's dreams are stolen. It happens to all of us at some point in time, it's inevitable. You've just had a hard life, no one can blame you for that."  
  
Kenshin's eyes widened; for someone her age, she was quite wise. But he kept forgetting that she was different, that she knew things that, probably, even he wasn't aware of. There was something about her that was calming to him, that made him think that, maybe with her help, he might just be able to make it through life without going insane. All of a sudden his hands, which were resting at her hips, registered with his brain. He grinned at her.  
  
"You're wearing my boxers," he said flatly, snapping the waistband for emphasis.  
  
Kaoru giggled and gave a short nod, drawing his face toward hers for a kiss. Kenshin complied, but stopped after a moment when he remembered what he'd noticed the previous night.  
  
"Kaoru, why were you drinking?"  
  
"I didn't want to dream, I just wanted to sleep," she said quietly.   
  
A frown creased Kenshin's lips and furrowed his brow. "Don't do that again. I don't want you drinking without me there to take care of you."  
  
Unsure of whether to be touched by his concern or furious that he didn't think she could care for herself, Kaoru mirrored his frown. After some consideration, she decided to go with the former, if only to avoid an argument, which was undesirable especially because of the spectacular headache that she was currently developing. Kenshin lifted Kaoru off his lap and stood to stretch. Holding out his hand, he pulled Kaoru to her feet and quickly looked her over. He smiled suddenly.  
  
"I was going to tell you to go get changed and I'd make breakfast," he said in a low voice. "But I think I like you the way you are."  
  
Cheeks tinted pink, Kaoru followed Kenshin's lead into the kitchen, being pulled along by his insistent tugs on her hand. She groaned when he stopped abruptly, picking up the half-empty bottle on the table. Briefly, the thought crossed her mind that perhaps the bottle was half-full, but she was in no mood to take up that particular argument with herself that morning. Kenshin shook the whiskey bottle with a sigh, as if to assure himself that the amount he believed to be missing was, in actuality, gone.   
  
"That was an awful lot, Kaoru," he said in an almost inaudible tone, never once turning to look at her. "That bottle was full, it was new." It was by no means a small bottle.  
  
"I'm... sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry."  
  
It was then that Kenshin turned to her, amber swirling in the deep violet of his eyes. Kaoru closed her own eyes at the look he gave her.  
  
"Don't be sorry," he finally replied. "But don't do it again. I want you to come to me."  
  
Kaoru's eyes flew open and her firsts clenched involuntarily. "Why are you treating me like a child?" she questioned hotly. "I can care for myself!"  
  
Mildly taken aback, Kenshin stepped forward to rest a hand on her arm. "Shh, sweetheart, that's not what I meant." He desperately tried to make amends. "I just... I want to be the one to protect you... not some damn bottle of whiskey!" The sentiment was accentuated by the smashing of glass on the floor where he flung the bottle away, the deep amber liquid spilling over the hardwood with disregard to how much damage it could possibly inflict.   
  
Kaoru blinked without speaking, unsure of just what had snapped in Kenshin's mind. 'I wonder if Tomoe drank... if he felt inept to care for her because she turned to alcohol instead of him.' Searching his eyes, she decided that she was most likely right. 'She didn't really love him,' she thought suddenly. 'Do I love him? I think I do. No, I know I do. From the very beginning I loved him. The poor man, he never learned how to love properly.'  
  
Kenshin watched Kaoru closely, but her face gave away nothing of what she might be thinking. The expressionlessness was maddeningly alike to Tomoe's blank face, and he couldn't keep himself from speaking out against it.  
  
"Stop that," he said softly. "You look so closed off, as if nothing in the world can affect you. Stop that..."  
  
Kaoru stared at him, she wasn't sure how not to be stoic, she was so used to it. "I'm sorry," she said again. "I don't know how. I only know how to pretend," she whispered. "This is the way I've always been."  
  
Kenshin tightened his grip on her arm and moved toward her. His last thought before he brought his lips down over hers was that he must teach her how to be real, how to stop pretending. Even if he spent all his life playing different roles, and she would have to, as well, at least around each other, they could be themselves.  
  
***  
  
Kaoru watched with half-focused interest as Kenshin flipped through the channels on his television; she was more absorbed in the seemingly menial task of running her fingers repeatedly through his hair as his head lay on her lap. From somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized that she had never in her life been more comfortable than she was then, just sitting there with Kenshin's head on her legs and his hair between her fingers.  
  
Glancing up to look at Kaoru, Kenshin noted that she had a contented smile on her face and her eyes were closed. He liked the way she looked when she was at peace. With a frown, he wished that she could be like that forever, instead of just temporarily. But wasn't that the way life was? An endless torrent of pain and love intertwined, and then the uncertainty of death.  
  
Kenshin gave a loud groan as his cell phone rang demandingly, the tone telling him that he couldn't just ignore this call. He sat up and reached for the phone, rolling his eyes to make Kaoru giggle. He knew she wouldn't be giggling for long.  
  
"Yes?" he answered shortly. "Fine, Katsura-san. No. She's fine. All went as planned, he's been taken care of. No, she did much better than expected." There was a long pause in which Kenshin's face grew dark. "I understand completely. Would you like to speak with her yourself?"  
  
Kenshin handed the phone to a stunned Kaoru, who accepted it with a blank expression and wide eyes.  
  
"Hello?" she said tentatively. Katsura's voice, which wasn't unpleasant to listen to, she decided, sounded in her ear. He seemed to be making small talk, but she was smart enough to recognize the meaning behind his questions. She was being analyzed. "Everything went well, sir." She listened intently as Kenshin watched her face; she seemed to be growing distressed. "Yes, I killed..." she stopped to count. "Five men, sir." Kenshin gazed at her with his chin propped in his hand; her eyes were beginning to tear, but it wasn't discernable in her voice. "I killed him, yes." Katsura was obviously asking about the mission target. "No sir, Himura-san did an excellent job. I just got to it before him. Yes. Thank you." She didn't hand the phone back to Kenshin, but rather flipped it shut and tossed it across the room, flinging it at the far wall.   
  
Burying her head in Kenshin chest, she let herself cry again as he stroked her back soothingly. The conversation had gone well, he thought. She was intelligent, as she had once more proved by referred to him as 'Himura-san.' Katsura wouldn't enjoy the idea of them being emotionally attached, he would most likely think it too risky. Which it very well could be.  
  
When her tears had dried and she pulled away, he smiled at her. "You did very well. I'm proud of you."  
  
Kaoru glared at him, but couldn't hide her smile. "You treat me like a child."  
  
Kenshin didn't know how to answer that, so he simply repositioned himself to be lying down with her in his arms while he thought about it. A grin lit his face.  
  
"I don't think I'd have such dreams about you if you were a child to me," he breathed in her ear.  
  
Stiffening before she relaxed, Kaoru couldn't help but answer with a hand on his cheek and a deep kiss. Pulling away, she stuck her tongue out at him, and they both laughed.   
  
***   
  
A few hours later, after they'd finished watching some movie that Kaoru never cared to catch the title for, it was a pointless western anyhow, Kenshin stirred from the light sleep that he'd fallen into. He smiled with closed eyes as Kaoru's fingers absently kneaded the muscles of his abdomen; he was amazed that the shy, blushing girl that he'd first met had eased into someone so casually sensual, but he wasn't one to complain.   
  
"Kenshin," she said quietly.  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"What are you thinking of?"  
  
"You."  
  
Kaoru's hand ceased its movement, which caused Kenshin to open his eyes and frown. She looked pensive, as if there was something heavy that she was thinking through. He reached up to tug her hair gently, more to reassure her of his presence than to cause her any pain. Tucking her face into the crook of his neck, she sighed.   
  
"What's wrong?" he asked as he began to toy with her hair.  
  
"I've just been thinking about my friends and my home in Japan. I don't know what I'm going to do about all that."  
  
"You'll have to live with me," Kenshin said in agreement. "This just wouldn't work any other way." 'Besides,' he added mentally. 'I don't want you anywhere that I'm not.'  
  
"My parents... they died when I was seventeen," she murmured. She interrupted Kenshin before he could say the infamous 'I'm sorry.' "I should have told you sooner, but I don't like to talk about them. They lived very full lives, though," she said, as if to console herself with the fact that they were gone. "I do, did, have a home, though. I lived with a close friend, I don't know how to tell her that I can't come back. And the friends I'm here with, what will they say they find out that I spent three days with them and then disappeared to live with someone I barely knew?"  
  
Kenshin didn't reply but to make a rumbling noise in his throat and bury his face in her hair; he couldn't think of anything that he could say to her that would make the situation any easier.  
  
"I should probably call them, I bet they're out of their minds with worry."  
  
"Then call. I'll be right here."  
  
Kaoru lifted her head and groped for her cell phone on the couch-side table with one hand. Kenshin held on to her free hand and she sat up and listened to it ring.  
  
"Hi, it's Kaoru." She squeezed her eyes shut as her friend burst into tears, shouting her concerns to Kaoru. "I'm so sorry, you don't know how sorry I am," Kaoru said. "But I can't be back anytime soon. I've found... business... I'm caught up in something at the moment."  
  
Kenshin, with his sharp hearing caught her friend saying "It's that man, isn't it?"  
  
"Yes, I'm afraid it is. It's a complicated story, but I'm staying with him." Kaoru drew in a deep breath to keep her temper in check. "No, I assure you he's perfectly safe, he's a sweet man." Her eyes widened. "No, I swear he's not holding a gun to my head and making me say that." Obviously her friend doubted her words. "I swear on my parents' graves that I am safe, and well protected, and that Himura is a good man who would never hurt me." That was enough to shut the other girl up, and Kaoru quickly wrapped up the call with well-wishes and promises to visit another time, said her farewells, and hung up.  
  
Kenshin hid a chuckle behind a cough, knowing how seriously Kaoru felt about her friends. The thought wasn't enough to keep him from being amused at the fact that she'd called him a "sweet man." If there was anything he thought he'd never be called in his life, it was that.   
  
Kaoru hugged him to her suddenly, needing to know that she still had someone on her side.   
  
"I'm here for you, sweetheart, always."  
  
*****  
  
A/N: I wrote this chapter while avoiding writing an essay about literary history in the 18th century. Honestly, who cares? We only have to do it because we have a student teacher who thinks she's so terribly clever in forcing us to write this EXCRUCIATINGLY PAINFUL research paper. You'd think the giant timeline (it looks REALLY stupid, too...) would be enough, but NOOOOOO! I have to waste a day of my life pretending to care about the Neoclassical Period, the Augustan Age, the Age of Sensibility, and Romanticism and Gothic writing, ALL OF WHICH I ALREADY KNEW ABOUT!!!!! Listen to this... "Identify the major literary and artistic movements of the time, and outline their principles; Identify three major authors of the time, briefly giving an account of who they are and why they are important to literary history; Perform a full critical analysis of meaning, form, and style on ONE text from ONE author... Provide footnotes and an eight source bibliography in MLA style." How, I ask you, does all that fit into 800 words? I can have over 1,000 for a critical analysis in itself. She's fucking insane!! I hate student teachers. I hate footnotes (even though they're cool looking...), I hate bibliographies, I REALLY hate Daniel Defoe. But I like Jonathan Swift. He amuses me. Anyhow. Enough about how much this paper, which still isn't finished by the way, sucks chickens. This chapter was... I dunno. It's there, I guess. I was inspired by a TV show yesterday (I don't remember which one...), so I know where I'm going, but I just have to... you know... get there first. Damn. I had a crappy day... got thrown off a horse, contracted a nasty cough from one of my best friends, haven't had anything to eat but ramen, these weird pizza roll things, yogurt, and chips, got sunburned, and now I have to finish this essay... Life sort of pukes on you like that, ne? Right. I'm done complaining now. I think I'll go listen to some Elton John and relax for a while. 


	6. Life In The Fast Lane

**Night Stalker**  
MysticShadowWanderer  
  
Disclaimer: "That which bestows on everything tragic its particular elevating force is the discovery that the world, that life, can never give real satisfaction and hence is _not worthy_ of our affection: this constitutes the tragic spirit - it leads to _resignation_." -Schopenhauer

* * *

Chapter Six: Life In The Fast Lane

* * *

Kenshin stretched his arms behind his head and then rubbed his eyes wearily. He'd been in front of the computer screen for an hour now, and he was getting nowhere. Sanosuke was three hours late, Kaoru had been in the bath for nearly the entire hour, and he was supposed to have been updated on his next assignment by no other than the man that was three hours late in getting to his apartment. Nothing seemed as if it wanted to go his way today. The words 'life's not fair' momentarily flitted through his mind, but he scoffed at them.  
  
"That may be true, but it would be nice if it were unfair in my favor every so often," he muttered.  
  
"What's that?" Kaoru asked as she draped her arms around his neck from behind, her damp hair falling over his shoulders. He turned his head slightly to breathe in her scent; she smelled clean, fresh, somehow it was almost symbolic to him, but he couldn't place the feeling quite exactly. "What's unfair?" she asked again, to shake him out of his trance-like state.  
  
"Life," he murmured as he leaned his head back to rest on her shoulder. "But it's not important. Sanosuke's late," he added. "Would you like to go out for lunch?"  
  
"What about Sanosuke?" she questioned.  
  
"He should have been here three hours ago," Kenshin said. "He has a key; he can wait."  
  
"Alright then," she replied. "Give me fifteen minutes and I'll be ready."  
  
Kenshin nodded and watched Kaoru leave the room, appreciating the gentle sway of her hips and the ample amount of skin that was shown by the shorts she was wearing. He understood that by entering a relationship with her, and they were moving very quickly, that he was putting both of them in a very dangerous position, but he was beginning to realize that he just didn't care. Kaoru was, in some way, helping him keep his sanity; for the entire time he'd been with her, he hadn't gone out drinking, hadn't felt compelled to race, he'd been better.   
  
Making his way to the front door, Kenshin grabbed his wallet and trench coat and stood waiting for Kaoru, who appeared in the hall within the space of five minutes. He smiled at her; she looked pretty, as usual. Slipping into their shoes and pulling on their coats, the two walked out into the corridor and headed for the parking garage. Kaoru's eyes widened as Kenshin settled himself onto his motorcycle, but he held out his hand to her and she sat down behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist tightly and burying her face in his shoulder. Kenshin smiled and reassured her before revving the engine and tearing out of the garage. Kaoru swallowed hard and decided that she would never be used to this kind of driving.   
  
To Kaoru, Kenshin didn't seem to be paying attention to where he was going or what he was doing, but she found that, after a while, riding on a motorcycle at speeds that might appear reckless to the average citizen didn't bother her as it generally should to any normal human being that possessed a functional brain. If Kenshin was in control of the bike, she discovered that she felt perfectly safe. If she had been anyone, or anything, else in the world, it would have been odd that she trusted him so completely when she'd known him for such a comparatively short amount of time, but he was the type of person that she could instinctively trust from the moment she had met him.  
  
Kaoru gasped when Kenshin swerved suddenly into a parking lot, and he was unable to keep himself from smirking, thankful for the fact that she couldn't see his face from where she sat behind him. Letting out a great sigh when Kenshin finally parked the bike and killed the engine, Kaoru sat back and ran a hand through her hair. She quickly pulled it out of the braid she'd had it in for the ride and let it spill down her shoulders. Chuckling softly, she pulled Kenshin's hair out of its now messy ponytail and ran her fingers through it to disperse the tangles. With a few quick movements, she braided it down his back. When she'd finished, he reached around and pulled the braid over his shoulder.  
  
"You'll have me looking like a woman in no time at all, then?"  
  
"Oh, but it looks good," Kaoru said while trying not to laugh.  
  
"I'll take your word for it," Kenshin replied as he stood and offered Kaoru his arm; she took it and allowed him to lead her inside.  
  
It was interesting for Kaoru to watch the reactions of the people in the restaurant when they saw Kenshin. A few were visibly frightened, most likely because they'd heard the tales about him that were whispered in private between friends. The vast majority of the people seemed to find humor in his delicate features and long hair. At the looks of a couple of the women, though, Kaoru felt compelled to move closer to Kenshin, as if to show them that he was unavailable. Amusement practically radiated from him when she did so, and he moved his arm from hers to tuck it around her waist. Leaning down, he whispered to her.  
  
"Just try not to hurt anyone."  
  
Kaoru elbowed him and stuck her tongue out, causing him to laugh. As they were seated, he thought about how pleasant this was, being able to have a good time at lunch instead of planning a murder or an illegal race. It was doubtless that, with time, he'd have to do that with Kaoru like he did with Sanosuke, but for now he found it refreshing just to sit across the table from her in a public place and discuss what they were going to eat, not sit next to her in his apartment and discuss who they were going to kill. Sometimes even a hitokiri liked normalcy.

* * *

"Where the hell have you two been?" Sanosuke practically attacked them when they stepped through the door.  
  
"We," Kenshin said as he peeled off his coat and kicked his shoes at his best friend, who ducked one but took the other in the chin with a curse, "have been out at lunch."  
  
"You knew I was supposed to come over!"   
  
"I also knew that you were three hours late, and that I was hungry and tired of waiting for you," Kenshin retorted.   
  
"Alright, alright, you win," Sano relented. "Again."  
  
Kenshin grinned and held up the sack that Kaoru handed him. "We did, however, bring you something to eat."  
  
At those words, Sanosuke looked up from the Playstation 2 game that he was playing with a pleased expression. "Then all is forgiven," he said with a smile.  
  
Kaoru couldn't help but laugh; what a strange relationship these two had. Sano began to scarf down the cheeseburger that had been in the bag and Kenshin flopped down on the sofa, motioning for her to join them and somehow simultaneously shoving Sanosuke to the other end of the couch to make room for all of them.  
  
"Hey!" Sano said around a mouthful of half-chewed meat, bun, and cheese. "Careful who you're shovin' little man."  
  
"Little man?" Kenshin raised an eyebrow, semi-incredulously. "Please tell me that I misheard you."  
  
Sanosuke coughed and suddenly found his cheeseburger amazingly fascinating. "Yeah, you must be hearing things."  
  
Then it was Kaoru's turn to cough, but she was trying to hide her laughter, not her guilt. Kenshin glanced at her; the question in her eyes burned to be asked. Silently, he bid her to inquire, whatever it was that she was curious about.  
  
"Why on earth did you let Kenshin do that to you?" She was having a hard time keeping a straight face. "He's smaller than you, after all."  
  
Glaring at both her and Sanosuke, Kenshin made sure that the other man knew that he was only allowed one answer, and that it had better be good.  
  
"Just look at him, little missy," Sano said. "Don't tell me that you don't believe that man could kick my ass within a few minutes. In fact, he has before. Twice, actually." He held up two fingers for emphasis.  
  
Kaoru imitated Kenshin and raised an eyebrow. True, she'd seen him kill and she knew he had deadly accuracy and speed, but surely Sanosuke was not without skill, especially seeing as how he was a member of the syndicate. These two were confusing, was the answer she settled with as she leaned back into the couch with a sigh.  
  
Kenshin and Sano shared a grin over her head, which she, of course, didn't miss but also didn't mention. For a while, they joked around, taking turns racing cars on Kenshin's Playstation, or crashing cars in Kaoru's case, and just generally acting their age, which none of them really ever did. Good things were never meant to last though, even the best memory dies with time, and so it came as no surprise to Kenshin when Sanosuke suddenly became serious.   
  
"I didn't just come here to play games," he said quietly. "You two have another assignment." He glanced pointedly at Kenshin, who prayed that he misinterpreted the look.  
  
Kaoru froze as soon as the words left his mouth. She knew to expect this, but part of her still wished that it was all a bad dream. A comforting hand gripped her shoulder, and she nodded thankfully in Kenshin's direction.  
  
"I hate doing to this to you, missy," he said with a sigh, raking a hand through his spiky hair which, astonishingly, remained in its strange, pointed fashion. "But it can't be helped. Katsura-san wants you to learn to work independently." Before Kaoru could voice the protest that he could see on her face, he held up his hands placatingly. "You're not goin' out on your own. Kenshin here will be with you, but he'll be on the fourth floor, and you'll be on, well... you'll be on the thirty-first floor. Your target..."  
  
Kaoru listened intently as Sanosuke filled them in on the details of their assignment. They were to take out the head of a huge corporation, a man named William Ernst. The old saying "never trust a man with two first names" briefly flitted through Kaoru's head, but she disregarded it. Sanosuke told them that Kenshin was to be, more or less, the backup, and Kaoru watched the redhead frown disapprovingly. Kaoru's task was to go up to the top floor (thirty-one seemed like such an odd number of floors to have in a building) and eliminate the man, in the manner of her choosing.

* * *

Kaoru didn't like the way this was turning out, didn't like it at all. She was standing with her back firmly against a wall in a dark hallway on the thirty-first floor of a dark building. It was lucky that these criminal-type corporate men worked late hours, she had the strong suspicion that the reasoning behind that was less than legal, because it would be difficult to pull off an assassination during the middle of the day and get away with it.  
  
Giving herself just one more second to calm her nerves, she spun and kicked the door open, not bothering to even try the handle. Within seconds, the surprised-looking man who had been standing with a book in hand was lying crumpled on the floor, a bullet hole placed neatly between his eyes, and the book was on the other side of the room where it was tossed when his body convulsed as it fell. Kaoru crouched to pick up the book. A Bible. It was sad, really. Ironic, as well. All the religion in the world couldn't have saved this man, who was so corrupt that she felt she was delivering Heaven's justice. In his life, he'd probably shattered all ten of the commandments, yet still expected his precious God to save him. Pathetic.  
  
Standing, Kaoru walked slowly to the edge of the office, looking out the window that was less of a window than it was a wall. The entire side of the office was a pane of glass, and it really was quite beautiful. If only it had been looking out on something other than the city lights below, it would have been magnificent. Humans spoiled everything.  
  
"How did it go?" Kenshin asked when she met up with him on the fourth floor, where he leaned against the wall nonchalantly, standing in the center of a group of dead bodies, blood pooling at his feet as if he were the creator himself.  
  
"It was fine," Kaoru replied. "Fine..."  
  
"This is getting old," Kenshin muttered, stepping over the corpses to fall in step with Kaoru, who was leaving the building. "Let's go get something to drink."  
  
"Sounds good to me."  
  
Five minutes later, they were sitting in Kenshin's Ferrari, waiting at a stop light, if somewhat impatiently. With her eyes shut, Kaoru listened to the music that Kenshin was blasting.  
  
"You're so cold, put your hand in mine," she repeated. It was strangely fitting. They were cold, both of them. You had to be to kill.  
  
"Let's give this another try," Kenshin said quietly. The song was good, but depressing, more so to them, he guessed, than most of the other people who heard it. That fact couldn't really be helped, but it didn't make the pain any easier to bear.  
  
Kaoru opened her eyes as the song ended, then looked out the window. Turning to Kenshin, she raised an eyebrow.  
  
"This same club?"  
  
"It's owned by the syndicate. We get our drinks for free."  
  
"Oh."

* * *

"Hey chap, long time no see!" the bartender greeted Kenshin jovially. "And I see you decided to keep her."  
  
A blush tinting her cheeks, Kaoru looked up at the man, who was very forward even with the standards she'd been used to lately. Perhaps he'd known more from the beginning, though. She remembered that the first time she'd met Kenshin, the bartender had asked, "Hey Himura, this yours?" Could he have, maybe, been right? There was no time to think about it as the bartender slid her a shot glass full of vodka. Kenshin raised his glass in a mock-toast.  
  
"To the dead."

* * *

Nine shots later, and the pair was ready to leave, waving their farewells to the bartender, who smiled cheerfully and waved in return. They walked the two blocks to the Enzo, laughing and joking. Kenshin pressed the unlock button on his key ring, and they slid into the car.  
  
"Let's do something stupid," Kenshin said suddenly.  
  
A quizzical look passed Kaoru's face. Why would he want to do that? There was no chance that he was drunk, quite the contrary, ten shots of vodka probably had very little effect on him. And Himura Kenshin the Battousai rarely did anything stupid. In fact, he rarely did anything purposeless, stupid or not.  
  
"Being with you," he began to explain, "it makes me feel... I don't know, almost normal. As if I could be a regular twenty-four year old, go out and have fun. Hold a conversation that doesn't involve killing someone or committing some other sort of crime."  
  
That was something that Kaoru had to think about for a few minutes. "I don't know if you could ever be normal, Kenshin. I think normalcy is overrated, anyhow."  
  
"You're right, I suppose," he assented. "But still, it would be nice to do something stupid for once. Maybe just to see what it's like to be a pointless waste of space and burden to society."  
  
Kaoru mirrored his grin, and as they pulled onto the highway, he shifted gears and floored it, throwing them both back into their seats. The few other cars on the road switched lanes quickly, clearing a path for him to avoid having him dodge around them at such a high speed. Glancing at the speedometer, Kaoru gasped when she saw that they were just barely over 200 miles per hour and accelerating.  
  
"Just don't kill us, Kenshin!" she shouted over the roar of the engine and the blasting of the stereo.  
  
"Wouldn't dream of it!" he replied.  
  
They tore down the highway as if tomorrow would never come, both equally enjoying the power of the vehicle beneath them and the strange sense of freedom given to them by speed. Their ecstasy lasted only a few moments before Kenshin slammed on the brakes.  
  
"Fuck!" was all Kaoru heard before she saw the blaze of light that was the headlights of the car that had jumped the median and was heading straight at them.  
  
Kenshin attempted to slow the car, but didn't want to cause them to spin out, as that would only cause more problems and would make him lose control completely. They were going to hit the other car, it was inevitable now, they both knew it. Kaoru stared at the lights, transfixed and, oddly, calm. She'd been in car wrecks before, the best thing to do was to keep yourself from tensing up. At the last moment, all she could think to do was send her energy out to protect them as best she could. Closing her eyes, she pictured the red glow of her own spiritual energy enveloping her and Kenshin, the only thing she knew to do to help.  
  
With the sound of crumpling and tearing metal and screeching tires, the two cars collided, bursting into flames. Kenshin struggled to remain conscious, but was having a difficult time of it. He had to stay awake, he told himself, had to get both of them out of the car. They were on fire, the car was almost unavoidably going to explode. It was a miracle that the two vehicles hadn't combusted on impact, but he wasn't going to sit and contemplate his luck   
  
Groaning, he reached out and shook Kaoru gently by the shoulder. Her head was bleeding, crimson running from her forehead to her chin in a continuous stream, and her right arm was most certainly broken. From where he sat, he couldn't tell what other kinds of injuries she had. He just prayed that his dragging her out of the car wasn't going to do her any kind of permanent damage.  
  
The doors wouldn't open, Kenshin realized with distress. Suddenly he realized that his katana sat at Kaoru's feet. Thanking whoever was taking care of them that it hadn't somehow killed her, he grabbed it, tossed his coat over Kaoru's body, and shattered both windows. Ignoring the protests of his body, he jumped out the driver's side window and hurried to the other side of the car. Taking a calming breath, he pulled his coat out the window and off Kaoru, then gently eased her out, avoiding the sharp pieces of glass around the edges of the window. Struggling only a little as he did his best not to move her in any way that could further the damage that had been done to her, he pulled her over to the side of the highway, laying her down on his coat a safe distance from the burning car.  
  
His conscience decided to make an appearance at that point in time, and he trotted back over to the wreck, glancing in the front of the other car to see if the driver could be helped. The scene that met his eyes was enough to shock even him. The car was a Volkswagen Jetta, and the impact had been more than it could withstand. The hood was so crumpled that the engine had been pushed up through the dash, and jagged pieces of plastic were embedded in the bodies of the man and woman sitting in the front of the car. They were so mangled that even Kenshin, who'd spent most of his life around death, cringed and had a difficult time hiding his disgust. He hadn't been this close to vomiting in years. His eyes widened as he looked in the back seat.  
  
Lying twisted and broken, slumped in the space between the front and back seats, was a child that could have been no older than five. And there beside him was an infant's car seat, empty but with broken straps. The baby was nowhere to be seen, but Kenshin got the sinking feeling that if he cared to go around to the front of the cars, and search in the flames, that he would find a small, charred corpse.   
  
It was simply too much for him to take. He turned and quickly returned to Kaoru's side. Holding his head in his hands, he sank down in the grass, not able to understand the tightening in his throat and the burning of his eyes. After a moment, he realized that he was crying. Here he was, the infamous Hitokiri Battousai, sitting on the roadside, his six hundred thousand dollar car in flames, and his woman unconscious, crying. Life had such a strange sense of humor.

* * *

A/N: Well. That went... interestingly. I didn't expect that to happen. Seriously. I was having trouble writing this chapter, but all the sudden Kenshin crashed into another car and I have no problem. Oh yeah, and just to clarify, it wasn't Kenshin's fault. I'm not sure if I really got that across in the story... It's 3.30 AM, so everything's kinda fuzzy, you know? As much as it would amuse me to end the story here, because it would be cruel and evil, not to mention poetic, I'm not going to do that to you guys, so don't worry about that. I'm not going to tell you not to worry for the characters or not, however, because I don't like to give anything away. :grins evilly: Always leave them wanting more, ne? :sits back and awaits the anonymous hate mail: Wouldn't that be crazy/creepy/scary/amusing if I actually got anonymous hate mail at my house? Whoa... By the way, the song they were listening to ("You're so cold, put your hand in mine," and "Let's give this another try.") was "So Cold" by Breaking Benjamin. Anyone who happened to read The Taste Of Ink already knows I'm currently obsessed with that song. So, yeah. I guess that explains it. It's a really good song... Looking back through the chapter, I just want to mention for anyone who doesn't know it, ten shots of vodka really isn't enough to get them drunk. It sounds like a lot, but, depending on the person who's drinking it, it really isn't that much. :shrugs: Everyone's different though. Just thought I'd mention that... And I also considered changing the miles per hour to kilometers per hour, but I was too lazy. Yay for Americans and the standard system which really sucks. It's so pointless... Anyhow, I'm done now. Really. Ja!


	7. Second Chances

**Night Stalker  
**MysticShadowWanderer  
  
Disclaimer: Der moose.

* * *

Chapter Seven: Second Chances

* * *

"Sir?" Kenshin heard a voice calling to him through the blackness. "Sir, I think you need to wake up." A hand gently tapped his shoulder.  
  
Kenshin struggled to sit up, smothering the urge to moan in pain and frustration when he realized that he couldn't. He didn't even know he'd blacked out. Guilt washed over him; he should have stayed conscious to take care of Kaoru, although he wasn't sure what to do.  
  
Something was seriously wrong with his chest, it felt like liquid fire had been poured into his lungs and was eating him alive from the inside. Probably just broken ribs, he told himself, but that didn't make it hurt any less. How had he gotten himself and Kaoru out of the car in the condition he was in? He could feel blood pouring out of his thigh, which felt like it was being stabbed with thousands of tiny knives.  
  
"Sir, I've called the police and fire department. I think you should just stay down. You're bleeding something terrible. It's a wonder you two are even alive, I'd wager."   
  
Focusing his blurry eyes, Kenshin looking up at the concerned old man that was standing over him. He couldn't look down at his body, but felt like he needed to know what was wrong with him. Generally, he took care of his own wounds, and it was more than vexing to be unable to do so.  
  
"My leg," he said. "What's wrong with my leg?"  
  
The old man looked at the cut and grimaced. "You've got a gash clean down to the bone. Amazing you were able to walk on that leg at all."  
  
Thank the gods for the astonishing things the human body can do under conditions of extreme stress, Kenshin thought. He was thankful for that, but at the moment wanted nothing more than morphine or perhaps something stronger. Illegal narcotics might be nice at a time like this.  
  
There was a crowd, he noticed dimly. People were gawking at the sight; London seemed to be just as morose a city as any other. He sighed and closed his eyes, his entire body racked with pain. More than anything, he felt weary, so very tired. Within a few minutes, he heard screaming sirens drawing closer and closer until the ambulances were pulled up near to him. With some effort, he forced his eyes to open. A paramedic was looking down at him.  
  
"Sir, could you please give us your name?"  
  
"Kenshin Himura. The woman is Kaoru Kamiya. Take care of her first, she's worse off than I am."  
  
The paramedic shook his head, seemingly in disbelief. "It's amazing that you're both in the conditions that you are. You should be dead. How fast were you driving?"  
  
Kenshin chuckled slightly, but it faded into a groan when the movement made his chest ache. "Fast."  
  
With a disapproving gesture, the paramedic kneeled at Kenshin's side to stabilize him and prepare him to be put in the ambulance. Eyes darting sideways, Kenshin saw that the fire department was busy extinguishing the flames of the mangled monstrosities that used to be two cars, and one man had somehow removed the bodies from the Jetta. Closing his eyes to avoid watching, he laid completely still as he was strapped into various devices and then gently lifted onto a stretcher. Today had just not been his day.  
  
As they were loading him into the ambulance, he heard running footsteps and listened as another one of the paramedics spoke frantically.  
  
"She's in critical condition." Kenshin's eyes flew open; she hadn't looked that bad. "We can't get her to come to, and her breathing is becoming increasingly shallower. We need to get her to the hospital as fast as possible."  
  
"Goddamn it," Kenshin swore under his breath as they slid him into the vehicle and slammed the doors shut. This was all his fault.

* * *

They wouldn't let them see her, wouldn't tell him about her, and wouldn't let him stay awake. The doctor told him he had several broken ribs, more than a few fractured bones, and more gashes than could be counted. He had to go into surgery, because they worried that he might have internal bleeding. His protests that he had to know how Kaoru was died in the air as they fell on deaf ears. All the cursing and weak struggling that he could muster did nothing to aid his pleas and only got him put to sleep to go under the knife.

* * *

It was hours later when Kenshin awoke, alone in a dark room, his whole body on fire. Straps and slings surrounded him, making him feel trapped and captured. Now he remembered why he hated doctors. His mind was still groggy from the anesthesia, but he was alert enough to know that he needed to see Kaoru. The chances of being allowed to move, however, were slim to none. He buzzed for the nurse.  
  
"Yes, Mr. Himura?" She really mangled the pronunciation of his name. "What do you need?"  
  
"I need to know how Kaoru Kamiya is," he rasped, his voice hoarse from all the shouting he'd done earlier and from the slight daze he was still in.  
  
"I'm sorry Mr. Himura, but I'm afraid I can't tell you that at the moment," she replied in an overly happy voice that was quickly grating on his already frazzled nerves. "She's still in surgery."   
  
"For what?"  
  
"Broken bones, she needs stitches, she's injured several organs, and fractured her skull. The doctors aren't sure what else is wrong with her, but they're hopeful."  
  
That was mostly bullshit, and Kenshin knew it. The doctors weren't hopeful, the nurse's voice exposed her lie.  
  
"Why wouldn't she regain consciousness?"  
  
"They aren't sure, sir. They're afraid she sustained significant injury to the brain. Everything's unsure at the moment, though, so please do hope for the best."  
  
Kenshin groaned and settled his head back into the pillow. There was nothing he could do, nothing at all. This was the worst feeling in the world; he hated being useless. "When can I see her?"  
  
"Not for a while, I'm afraid. You're in no condition to be moving about. You had your own share of injuries, and with the way some of your organs are looking, the doctors don't want you to move at all for a week at least. Now, I think it's best that you get some sleep."  
  
Before he could even raise an objection, he feel the sharp prick of a needle and was drifting away. "That was a cheap trick," he said thickly before he dropped off into sleep.

* * *

Kaoru was wandering, alone and cold, in the rain. It was storming, lightning crashing about her as she stumbled through darkness. Up ahead of her was a light, bright and comforting, calling to her to come to it. Where was she? How did she get here?   
  
Soon the light was all she could see, and she blindly groped her way toward it. The things she was stepping on were unidentifiable, but she got the distinct feeling that she really didn't want to know what it was that was cracking and squelching under her feet.   
  
'Just... a little... closer...'  
  
When finally she was bathed in the warm light, she looked down to see that she, dressed all in white, was covered in blood. It stained her hands, her arms, her bare feet and legs under the uneven hem of the dress that she didn't remember putting on. Trailing her fingers over her face, she knew that she was smearing blood down her cheek. It was as if she'd bathed in the stuff.  
  
"Where am I?" she shouted, growing desperate and disgusted.  
  
The light grew brighter, and she shielded her eyes with her arm, squinting to try to see who it was that stood in front of her, but all she could make out was a blurred silhouette.   
  
"Where am I?" she repeated, a bit more pleadingly.  
  
"You have to go back." The voice from the silhouette was booming, painfully so. "You are too bloodstained to enter here."  
  
Kaoru snorted, she couldn't help it. "Thank you for that astute observation." She lifted an arm to show the blood that dripped down her fingertips.  
  
There was a moment of heavy, awkward silence, in which she realized that she just made a cynical remark to the gatekeeper of the afterlife, or underworld, or whatever it was that she was currently standing in front of. Her eyes widened and she brought her sticky, wet hands to her mouth in shock and fear.  
  
Suddenly the silence was broken by loud laughter. Kaoru didn't join in, but tried to keep herself from shaking too hard. This was too much pressure for her to handle.  
  
"Go back, child," the voice said, sounding much less intimidating and now more kind and commiserating. "Save yourself and save Himura the Battousai."  
  
"Kenshin!" Kaoru gasped. "Oh no, what happened to Kenshin?"   
  
Now she remembered. They had been driving, and they had crashed into another car. She'd sent out her energy to protect them, but apparently it hadn't worked.   
  
"But it did, young one." Apparently the figure before her had the ability to read her thoughts. "And we are very proud of you for that. You saved Himura's life, and your own, but you're very drained."  
  
"Kenshin's alive? I'm alive?"   
  
"Himura is alive and will be well. You, at the moment, are not alive, but I am sending you back. Now go back, back the way you came. To return to your body and your life, you must find your way through the darkness to prove yourself worthy. Hurry now, you don't have much time. Go, child!"   
  
"Thank you!" Kaoru shouted over her shoulder as she turned and ran off in the other direction.  
  
"Save yourself and the Battousai!" The message echoed until it faded away, along with the bright light.  
  
In the darkness, everything is the same, with no color to distinguish one object from the other. There was nothing and everything, but Kaoru hung on to the thought that she had to keep going, until she could get back to Kenshin.  
  
It felt like eternity, like a fraction of a second, before she saw a lightening to the darkness. Through what looked like a hole in a cloud, she saw herself, saw the doctors frantically trying to revive her. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and did the only thing she could think of. She jumped.  
  
Her eyes flew open and she gasped for breath. The doctors all breathed sighs of relief. As her eyes slid shut again, a great heaviness pressing itself upon her, she whispered, nearly inaudibly, "Tell Kenshin... I'm alright..."

* * *

"Mr. Himura." The nurse's irritating voice drew him out of the sleep that she'd put him into. He was really getting tired of all the shots, and his skin was beginning to remind him of an overused pincushion.  
  
"Mr. Himura, you'll want to hear this."  
  
"Wha...?" He couldn't quite get any coherent words out just yet.  
  
"Miss Kamiya..."  
  
Immediately, he was alert. "What about her?"  
  
"Sir, she was dead."  
  
"Was?" His heartbeat was rapidly accelerating.  
  
"Yes, was. There's no reason for her to be alive now, except for possibly her strength of will and her love for you."  
  
'She loves me?'  
  
"Right now Miss Kamiya is in a comatose state, but the doctors fully expect that, with time, she will recover. She was awake for just a few moments, and in that time managed to say that she wanted us to tell you that she is alright. For the time, it's best that she remains in a coma, because her body merely seems to be giving her time to replenish her energy, and for her bones and organs to heal. There were a few complications, but she's currently stable and, like you, she was extremely lucky. It's miraculous that you two are doing so well, really."  
  
Kenshin breathed a sigh of relief. If Kaoru had died, he didn't know what he would have done.

* * *

After a few weeks of being confined to a hospital bed, Kenshin was beginning to grow restless, even with only one more day of imprisonment before he'd be allowed to visit Kaoru, who was still in a coma. At first, he worried, but being in bed for so long gave him time to think about it, and he realized that if she said she was alright, that she wouldn't lie to him.   
  
Flipping through the channels on television, Kenshin groaned as he tried to move into a more comfortable position, which he couldn't seem to find. Not only was he in pain, there was nothing on TV, which made the situation irrevocably worse, because there was nothing to take his mind off all of his many ailments. The nurse refused to allow him to have any alcoholic beverages, Sanosuke only poked and prodded at him when he came to visit, and he'd had too much time to think about the family in the other car, the ones who died.  
  
It was his fault, he decided early on, and no one had been able to convince him otherwise. They told him the other car had jumped the median, had crashed into him, and that he couldn't avoided hitting them. But he had been driving much too fast. If he hadn't been, the impact wouldn't have been so violent. Every time he mentioned that, someone told him that even if both cars had been going the legal speed, it was likely that the family would have died anyhow. In fact, Kenshin and Kaoru would likely have died had they been driving legally, at which point whomever he was talking to would mention how it was a miracle that they were alive. Car accidents were dangerous, no matter what speed, was how they always finished their pseudo-sermon.

* * *

"Alright, Mr. Himura," the doctor said after looking him over one last time. "You may get up and move about the hospital. I would guess that you'd like to see Miss Kamiya."  
  
Kenshin nodded impatiently as the nurse began to remove straps from his body.   
  
"I have to warn you that she's still comatose, and she looks very ill, but I assure you that with the proper time to heal, she'll be better. I'm quite certain that she should be waking up anytime soon. And, please, try not to make any sporadic movements or do anything that might pull stitches or put any further strain on your organs. You're still not nearly healed."  
  
"Yes, yes," Kenshin said dismissively. "I'll be careful."  
  
"Miss Kamiya is in room 241," the nurse said as Kenshin eased himself into a sitting position.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
The doctor and nurse left the room, and Kenshin looked around for something less revealing to wear than the pajama pants that he had on. Sanosuke had brought him a duffle bag of clothing, and it appeared that he just grabbed things and stuffed them in the bag. Kenshin settled for a pair of loose sweat pants and a t-shirt, ignoring the fact that the hospital staff wasn't going to be very pleased at his wandering the building with no shoes on. They could get over it.

* * *

Quietly pushing open the door of room 241, Kenshin slipped inside and immediately limped to the bedside to look down at Kaoru. Stretching out his right arm, which was the one not bound in the sling, he traced his fingertips lightly down her cheek; she was so pale. He remembered her bleeding, there had been so much blood, and he wondered exactly how much she'd lost. For the second time since the beginning of this horrific incident, he felt his eyes welling with tears. All of this was his fault. All his fault.  
  
He wouldn't leave her side until she awoke, he decided quickly. The last thing he wanted was for her to be alone when she woke up from this. It was almost certain that she would be scared, or at least confused, and he wanted to be there for her.  
  
With considerable difficulty, he dragged a cushioned chair over to the bed, next to her head, and then sat down heavily. His breathing was slightly increased, and slightly painful, just from the effort it took to move a chair, a task that he usually completed without a second thought. The recovery period that he still had to go through was going to be extremely difficult for him to deal with. After years of being a hitokiri, quite possibly one the most dangerous jobs he could have chosen, here he was, sitting in a hospital because of a car wreck.   
  
"Gods, I hate irony."

* * *

Kenshin woke with a start in the middle of the night, all the parts of his body that weren't previously sore from the accident now aching from sleeping in a chair. Groaning, he cursed his stupidity. There had to be an easier way to do this; by no means was he going to leave Kaoru's bedside.  
  
Reaching out, he took one of her frail-looking hands in his, holding it gingerly, as if afraid it would break under even the slightest pressure. She hadn't moved since he'd gotten there that afternoon. Even though he told himself not to, he couldn't help but start to worry just a bit. What if the doctors were wrong? What if she never woke up? She wouldn't have lied, would she? Perhaps when she said she was alright it was on a broader scale than just this physical plane of existence. What if...?  
  
His almost panicked train of thought was interrupted by a firm squeeze on his hand. He looked up to find Kaoru's bright blue eyes staring at him, half-opened but still awake. Contrary to his earlier thoughts, she didn't look frightened or confused at all, just tired and a bit dazed.  
  
"Kenshin..." her voice was quiet and barely audible. "Kenshin, I snapped at the angel of death."  
  
"You... what?"  
  
"I was covered in blood, and he, or she, but I think he because the voice was masculine, stood in front of me and told me that I was too bloodstained to enter. And I raised my hand, because it was dripping with blood and said to him 'Thank you for that astute observation.' I was cynical to the angel of death, Kenshin." She was having some difficulty speaking, but not so much for someone who had been in a coma for three and a half weeks.  
  
"Kaoru, I think you were dreaming."  
  
"Oh no, Kenshin," she entreated. "My dreams were absolutely wonderful, peaceful, full of hope, but I know that meeting him was not a dream. Seeing myself dead was not a dream." Coughing weakly, she fell quiet to try to catch her breath again.  
  
It suddenly hit Kenshin that she had, in fact, been clinically dead for a few minutes, and that it wasn't entirely impossible that she'd met the angel of death. After all, no one really knew for certain what happened after death.   
  
"Amazing," he breathed. "You... snapped at him?"   
  
Kaoru blushed in proper shame and attempted to nod, but stopped when searing pain from her head and neck assaulted her. Kenshin frowned at her pain; she didn't yet know what kind of injuries she had. He could tell her everything later, though. At the moment, there were more pressing matters to hear of.  
  
"What did he do?"  
  
"He laughed, thank God." She smiled at the memory. "Then he told me to go back and save myself. And... he said to save you..."  
  
"Did he... hmm..."  
  
"He also said that I saved our lives, and that they, whoever they are, were very proud of me. He told me that you would be well."  
  
Kenshin smiled reassuringly at her. "And so I will be. My injuries are nothing that won't heal with time." After sinking in, something she'd said registered with his mind. "You saved our lives? How?"  
  
"I shielded us with my energy. That's why I was in a coma for so long, my body and spirit had to replenish themselves."  
  
That was one of the strangest things Kenshin had ever heard. "I didn't know... that any one person's spirit could be that strong."  
  
"Oh but they can," Kaoru whispered earnestly, having lost the energy to converse at a normal volume. "It just depends on how much the person believes they can do, and how badly they want to do it."  
  
"Kaoru..." Kenshin murmured. She amazed him, time and time again. "I love you."

* * *

A/N: Major "aw!" moment there... This chapter moved pretty quickly. I'm losing inspiration, I suppose, but I was just happy to get this out there. I think I may be wrapping this one up fairly soon, but I'm not sure. It all depends on how my muses feel.  
  
Muses: Fuck you, stupid hippie. Shut up and write your own goddamn stories.  
  
Ah, it's looking good so far. Like that crazy little afterlife thing going on there? I made it up all by myself :grin: I didn't want to pull any religion into this, so I just sort of left it ambiguous as much as I could. Whoa. I was listening to the radio, and this country song came on, and damn it's sad... Where'd that come from? Wow... I'm crying... Seriously. It's about this guy who had his heart broken and he couldn't drink all his pain away so he shot himself and just... yeah... It's very well done. Oh crap. It's a duet. Great, it's going to get even worse... Night y'all... (If anyone cares to know, I do have a tendency to say "y'all." I lived in North Carolina for the first two and a half years of my life, which is when I learned to speak and became literate, so... yeah... Random Shadow trivia.)


	8. Fruits of Chaos

**Night Stalker**  
MysticShadowWanderer  
  
Disclaimer: It only hurts when I'm breathing...

* * *

Chapter Eight: Fruits of Chaos

* * *

Kaoru groaned and set a hand lightly on her forehead. Kenshin had refused to let her do anything for a week now, and she'd been waited on in the hospital for at least a month. She fully understood that her injuries were the type that took time to heal, but after a while it became very uncomfortable to lie in bed for the entire day. At this point, she was just thankful that Kenshin allowed her to get up to use the bathroom.   
  
The door was eased open, the light that filtered in assailing Kaoru's eyes, and Kenshin stepped inside, bearing yet another tray. Kaoru smiled; he was so very sweet. In a way, she thought that all this trouble he was going through to keep her as comfortable as possible was more for him than it was for her, though she doubted he realized it. Beneath the smile that he wore when he was around her, she could read the deep sorrow in his eyes. He'd always held some of that sadness, but it wasn't like this. He forgot, as most people often did, that she could see everything. The poor man was carrying too many burdens on his shoulders.  
  
Ever since he'd told her that he loved her, they'd been acting as if it had never happened. Immediately after the words left his mouth, he'd looked regretful, and she'd pretended not to hear him. It hurt her, this charade, but she kept it up, if only for his sake. That conversation was better left for later, perhaps after they were both fully healed.  
  
"Good morning," he said cheerfully, and she returned his smile as best she could.  
  
"Can I get out of bed today?" She felt like a child who'd come down with an illness.  
  
He smiled and kissed the hand that he held in his. "Can't you wait just one more day?"  
  
"If I'm stuck in bed for any longer, I may go crazy," was her response.  
  
He chuckled. "Alright, but promise that you won't move around too much? And that you'll still let me take care of you?"  
  
"Of course."   
  
He needed to take care of her, she realized. Helping her made him feel better about the whole incident, and took his mind off heavier matters. There was no way that she could take that from him. Besides, it was nice to have all the attention that he insisted on giving her, at least for a while.   
  
She watched him as he wandered out of the room, looking, for a moment, dazed and confused, as if he were lost. And in an instant she understood that he was lost. He was lost within his mind, and she had to be the one to bring him back out. Here she was, an indigo child, someone who could take his burdens and make them hers, and then teach him how to lessen his pain, and she was doing nothing. Beneath the surface, behind the forced smiles that came more often now and buried under the friendly sarcasm, he practically seethed.   
  
Kenshin stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at Kaoru. Her blue eyes gazed steadily at him, and he met the stare. After a moment, he averted his eyes; she was reading him, he could feel it. No matter how hard he tried to hide himself away, she insisted on tearing him apart and picking through the shards of his soul to see who he was. In what seemed like one angry motion, he left the room and slammed the door behind him.   
  
With a sigh, Kaoru rubbed her temples with her fingertips. Before he'd run from her, she'd been able to glean enough from the connection. If she could, she would sit down and talk to him and explain that she knew, with every piece of her heart she knew who he was. It was as if she'd known him all along, and they were just biding their time, slowly letting the fire build until one of them snapped. And she feared that the one who snapped would be Kenshin, and that something disastrous would happen.

* * *

Kenshin sank down in the sofa, absentmindedly reaching for the television remote. What he needed was a good dose of unreality, maybe a science fiction movie or anything but a romance. The woman that seemed so at home in his bed was starting to get to him. More than starting, he should admit, she was under his skin and in his mind and driving him insane. No one had ever been able to read him, but she used those chillingly perceptive eyes of hers to delve into his innermost thoughts. He should have been more careful; he knew she was special, different.  
  
It wasn't as if he'd never had women in his bed before, that she looked so at ease was nothing new to him. She would probably be amazed at the stories he could but never would tell her. It was the way she could look at him, set him on fire and then maneuver him at her will, as if he were a puppet and she held the strings in her slender fingers, moving slightly this way and that to sway his outlook on life. At the same time he hated and loved the feeling. He knew he was under her control, and part of him wanted to shrug her off, ignore the hold. The other part wanted to surrender and be hers forever, whatever she desired him for.  
  
He didn't know what to do; he was lost.  
  
"Kenshin," she whispered, setting a hand on his arm gently. "Let me fix it."  
  
"Fix what?" He stared at the television, pointedly trying to ignore her, but unable to do so. He knew what she wanted from him, but he didn't know if he could give it.  
  
"Fix you, your heart, your soul. Stop killing," she said in earnest. "Stop the murders, let yourself live again."  
  
"Don't you see, Kaoru? Don't you understand? We are both killers now. It's become what we do, why we live, who we are. Don't tell me that you feel nothing when you kill. That power, that rush, it's inescapable, and we can't stop now."  
  
Kaoru sat down next to him, slowly, so as not to further injure her already aching body. He still refused to look at her; he just couldn't meet her gaze, he would feel too guilty.  
  
"You are still human, Kenshin," she replied softly. "Because you can mourn and feel guilt, you are still human. Because you can love and repent, you are still human. You are a better person than you give yourself credit for."  
  
At that point, Kenshin ducked his head and mumbled something that sounded distinctly like "I don't deserve a woman like this." Kaoru frowned.  
  
"I didn't know it was possible for anyone to have more self-worth issues than me," she said, staring at the ceiling innocently, as if she were thinking out loud instead of talking to Kenshin. They both knew better; Kaoru rarely said anything that didn't have some sort of meaning behind it. It was in her nature to know exactly what to say in every situation, to say something that would strike the very central nerve of the problem.  
  
Kenshin blinked; she had self-worth issues? It didn't really seem possible. Their gazes met and she nodded.  
  
"I am not the ideal model of all that is pure, Kenshin," she whispered. "I have lived, I have sinned, I have loved. And I have learned. But knowledge comes at a cost. You and I both have knowledge, Kenshin. What did you have to give up for yours? I had to forfeit the same, maybe more. How much of your innocence have you retained?"  
  
There was no answer that Kenshin could give her that he felt could explain the sacrifices he'd made in life, yet, somehow, he knew that her sacrifices had been far greater than his. Looking in her eyes, he could tell, but he couldn't understand exactly what it was.  
  
"My sanity," she murmured. "I have relinquished part of my sanity to be who and what I am. I would not ask for it back, because I know I have an importance to this world, but I can't help what I've lost. You can't either. Do not think yourself unworthy, Himura Kenshin. We are all unworthy, some in more ways than others, but you are not so unworthy as me."  
  
The conversation was becoming just a bit too strange for Kenshin. Though he had gotten some schooling in his life, and was quite an intelligent man, he was by no means a psychology expert, or any of that. Some of the things that Kaoru said left him feeling slightly confused, simply because of the depth of experience that she spoke from, an experience that he didn't have. At first he felt he should pity her, but he realized that she would hate that. Sympathy for her problems was not what she was seeking. Perhaps what she wanted was understanding, and for him to know that she was not so unlike him. Could he do that? For her, he thought that maybe he could.  
  
"Kenshin," she said quietly. "Give it all up, the killing. Learn to live again, to love again."  
  
It sounded like such a simple request, but they both knew what that would mean to him, what it would mean to even her, who was so new to killing. It was like drinking or drugs or self-mutilation. Murder was addicting.  
  
So could he give it all up? Try to make a normal life, be a normal man? With her at his side, there was a chance. But it seemed to him that there was a greater chance of him going insane, losing himself without anything to keep him from committing suicide. Was she enough? It seemed so much to risk.  
  
"I can... try," he said finally, after long consideration. "I don't know if I can do it, but I'll try. For you."  
  
Kaoru smiled brilliantly and threw her arms around him. He winced when she did, and wrapped her in his embrace gently, carefully avoiding her injuries.

* * *

Kenshin thanked whatever god might be listening that Katsura hadn't called yet. It had been four days since he'd promised Kaoru that he would give up assassination. Until Katsura called and he had to either deny the assignment or lie and then not complete the job, he could pretend that everything was normal, that he was just going about his life as usual.  
  
He didn't want to admit to her that he was scared, that he didn't know how to be a normal man. Once one started working for Kuroi Ame, one simply didn't quit. It just didn't happen. Ever.  
  
And Kenshin was going to be the first man in the history of the syndicate to attempt a feat that was nearly impossible. He decided right then and there that he was crazy.  
  
He was sitting at the kitchen table, a bottle of tequila in hand, when Kaoru walked in and took the seat next to him. Leaning over, she gently eased the bottle out of his grip and, after taking a quick swig of it herself, set it down at the other end of the table.  
  
"Your liver is going to look horrible when you get older."  
  
"I plan on dying young," he said blankly.   
  
Kaoru shrugged. "I suppose it's rather likely, but you shouldn't talk like that."  
  
He stared at her, somewhat incredulously. "Thank you for those inspiring words of confidence."  
  
Kaoru chuckled and pulled his hair. "You're welcome."  
  
They sat in silence for a while. That was the way it had been for the past few days. It was as if neither really had much to say, as if there was too much weighing on their individual minds to bother to share it. Life could be that way sometimes, Kenshin mused. There were some thoughts that were too poignant to be borne, that were too much a shape, picture, and bleeding colors to be expressed. The heaviest sorrows could never be removed from the heart because they could never be shifted from feelings to words. Words were so useless in the end, they could portray nothing but a shell of what should fill them, what couldn't fill them. His head dropped forward to rest against his hands that were folded against the table. It all seemed so hopeless when he stopped to think, really think and not give it passing attention. Irony twisted itself into daily life in that way.  
  
"I hate it," he whispered, just barely audible.  
  
"Hate what?" Kaoru didn't sound overly surprised; maybe she'd been expecting this from the beginning.  
  
"Everything."  
  
"You can't hate everything. Don't think that you are so much above everyone else that you can name such a blind emotion to all that you encounter. I will not stand for such a thing, and I will not suffer you to apotheosize yourself in such a manner. Rethink your answer, Kenshin, and give me a true one."  
  
Letting his eyes drop shut, Kenshin released a humming sound while he thought it over. It was unsettling, the way she completely rebuked him for what he said; to him it made sense. But what she said seemed to make more sense. Though if he couldn't hate everything, he didn't know what exactly it was that he hated. Did he hate himself? No, that wasn't the case. He hated the actions he'd taken, the mistakes he'd make, but not himself. If he replied with that, she'd likely tell him again that he was being egoistic. He took a minute to follow that train of thought. Why would she say that? Because saying he hated himself would be to say that he hated all human beings, all things created from a world of one. She'd taught him that. The world was not so full of separate entities, but rather one great force divided into many. They were bound together, and to hate one was to hate all. So what did he hate? Certainly not nothing. After a while, it came to him, as if the answer were given to him rather than sought out.   
  
"What I hate is the falsehoods, the way lies are so easily told because no one recognizes truth from fiction any longer. The comfort of slipping into a shielding lie has become so natural that no one pays it heed anymore. I hate that 'all the world's a stage,' and it always has been. I hate that I cannot change it."  
  
Kaoru smiled gently at him. "I can accept that. An answer like that is what the world needs more of, you and I both see it. Don't you understand? Killing was your way of trying to express that when you couldn't say it. It was a misguided way, a way that contradicts what you were trying to convey, but it was still the same answer. Now that you've learned, you can move on."  
  
It was too easy, too up-front to be true. Could it be what he was looking for? It seemed unlikely. How could he have learned? She was so young, she wasn't a teacher.   
  
But she was, and deep in his heart he knew that. She was his teacher, and she's just shown him a different way to think. That was what was holding him back in life. He'd always accepted the first answer, never thought to analyze the question. And while the first answer often was sensible, it wasn't always complete.   
  
"What do you know," he said. "You learn something new every day."

* * *

Kenshin laid on the sofa, arms behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. Night had crept into the corners of the room long ago, and Kaoru had been asleep for hours, but he was still awake. There was so much that required thought in these turbulent times that he often gave up on his rest to attempt to achieve some peace of mind. Unfortunately, he rarely grasped any of that which he so coveted, and generally spent his time worrying to himself. It was times like that which led him to his eventual desensitization; because he didn't want to worry, he taught himself not to feel.  
  
And now Kaoru wanted him to learn again. It was a bit of a daunting task, not because it was difficult, but because it would open the entrance to thoughts that he wasn't sure he wanted. Did he want to worry about the safety of others? After a bit of contemplation, he realized that he always had. Even when he tried to hide it, he'd never been able to completely deny that he still cared about people, assassin though he was. Even an assassin had a human side, he thought bitterly, a human side that felt pain and loss so much more deeply than anyone else. It was the price he had paid for his actions all along.  
  
For a while, he'd thought that Kaoru had stepped in and changed him so greatly. But he realized that she had never changed him, she'd just brought him back. He'd been this way all along. And now he knew that he had to do something, had to make a change in his life. All the drinking and street racing in the world would never help him find himself again. He wouldn't give those activities up, they were too much ingrained into who he was and he could only take one life-altering change at a time. Becoming a, relatively, normal citizen again would be enough to start with.  
  
"Kenshin?" Her voice was not an unwelcome interruption to his thoughts.  
  
"Hm?"  
  
She didn't reply to his wordless question vocally, but chose instead to drape her body on top of his, resting her head on his chest. As if by habit, his hand came up to stroke her hair, soothing both her and himself. Her lips brushed along the muscles of his bared chest, and he smiled down at her. All along she'd known that without her, he was worthless. He would have liked to think that without him, she was worthless, but he knew it wasn't true.  
  
"I am," she breathed. "Without you I am nothing." It was as if she read his thoughts.  
  
'Hell, maybe she did. There are many things about her that I've yet to learn.'  
  
"We can only bring that answer to the world," she didn't have to elaborate, they both knew what she was talking about, "if we're together. We have to keep each other from going insane." Her lips curved in a smile against his skin and he moved his other arm to wrap her gently in his embrace.  
  
"You don't have to treat me like a porcelain doll anymore, Kenshin," she said absently, her fingers toying with a strand of his long, red hair. "I am nearly fully healed."  
  
The noise that came from Kenshin's throat clearly told her that he completely didn't believe her. She poked at him in annoyance.  
  
"I wouldn't lie to you. If I say I am well, then I am. If you must know further, I happen to be able to control my convalescence. It's one of the perquisites of being an indigo child, you might say."  
  
"I see."  
  
The commiserating smile on her face told him that she knew that he didn't entirely understand what she meant by that, but he didn't mention it. He tightened my arms around her until he was crushing her to his chest, needing to feel her closeness, as if by pressing her to him, he could reassure himself that they were both still alive. The accident still played before his eyes when he closed them; he could still see the mangled bodies of the family he'd killed.  
  
"You didn't kill them, Kenshin."  
  
In his shock at her words, it didn't even register that she knew what he was thinking even when he wasn't speaking. Resting his cheek against the top of her head, he tried not to say anything. She sighed heavily and let her hand stroke the skin at the side of his stomach. She was well aware of the fact that he wouldn't relent so easily.  
  
"I don't know how to make you understand," she said finally. "I don't know how to show you."

* * *

A/N: Well... it's been a while... I know. I'm not perfect, you know. I'm getting pretty good at pretending I am, but no. Writer's block can hit me just like anyone else. I'm just glad that I got this out. I considered making it longer, but I didn't want to force it. I'll have to say, the chapter started out as pretty much crap, but I think it had a few redeeming qualities hidden in there. I personally liked the whole "what do you hate?" thing. I just love feeding my theories to eager readers :grin: Don't let your brains become warped. I tend to have that affect on people... Hmm... I can't think of much else, besides the fact that I like the word "apotheosized." (I used that in another fic, you may notice...) It's just a good word...  
  
Oh yes, and I'm leaving for vacation later today, so hopefully I'll be able to get something written while I'm relaxing at the beach, listening to the wind and the surf. Hope it storms!


	9. Disappearing Act

**Night Stalker**

MysticShadowWanderer  
  
Disclaimer: Have you ever noticed that my disclaimers never actually disclaim anything? Why do I even keep writing them? Why do these exist?

* * *

Chapter Nine: Disappearing Act

* * *

Despite all his hopeless wishing that the day would never come, Kenshin knew that it was inevitable that Katsura would call, and call he did. Kenshin played it off, agreeing to the assignment as he usually did, but on the inside he was squirming.  
  
'Now what do I do?'  
  
"That was Katsura, wasn't it?" Kaoru called from the kitchen, where she was preparing them a bowl of popcorn.  
  
"Yes." Kenshin's voice was flatly despondent.  
  
"We have to leave, then. What do you say to Ireland?"  
  
Kenshin blinked. It seemed too obvious that they would leave the country. But maybe that was the best way to go about things. After all, isn't the thing you seek almost always hiding in plain sight? He nodded slowly to himself.  
  
"Have you ever been there?"  
  
"Oh... once upon a midnight illusion," Kaoru answered as she walked out of the kitchen and handed the popcorn to Kenshin, who was sitting on the couch.  
  
"They call them past lives, Kenshin," she said by way of explanation. "Of course, there is no past, but our human minds cannot comprehend the concept of simultaneous time, but still..." She smiled at the puzzled look on his face, the way he tried so hard to comprehend her nonsense was cute.  
  
"Explain that to me," he requested earnestly.  
  
"Alright... here goes nothing..." Kaoru began. "Time is the fourth dimension. Think of it like this, we live in the third dimension, and when we see this dimension, it all happens at once. We don't see a doorway, then a chair, then a desk, then a wall, we see it all at the same instant. It's somewhat like we're blind to Time. Just as someone who is blind cannot visualize everything happening at once, they 'see' the room as the doorway, chair, desk, then wall, we cannot conceive Time as all happening at once, but it does. Our human minds don't have the right kind of 'vision' to 'see' Time, therefore we compensate for our own sanity, and believe in a false, linear Time; we see the 'past,' 'present,' and 'future.' But some people have a bit more of the right 'sight.' We call those people clairvoyants or psychics. They are scorned by some who don't believe them, yes, but it's logical when you think about it. If they have a little bit more of the 'sight' required to take in Time at once, then when they foresee what we call the future, they aren't seeing forward, they're simply telling us what is happening now, but we just can't see it because we don't have as much of the 'sight' as they do. It's confusing at first, but if you give it some thought, it all makes sense."  
  
"Uh... I'll have to get back to you on that," Kenshin said, his eyes wide.  
  
Kaoru chuckled and tugged his hair. "So, Ireland it is?"  
  
"Is it nice there?"  
  
"Beautiful."  
  
Kenshin set the popcorn aside and leaned forward grab Kaoru by the hand. She shrieked playfully as he pulled her down to lie against his chest.  
  
"If we're going to leave London, why don't we have something to remember it by?" he whispered in her ear.  
  
Her response was to kiss him deeply. He laughed breathlessly as they broke apart.  
  
"I'll take that as a 'yes.'"  
  
Kaoru stood and took him by the hand, her eyes gleaming as she led him to his own bedroom. He tilted his head and watched as she stretched herself out on his bed, her body an open invitation. Slowly and teasingly, she ran her hand down her neck and began to unbutton her shirt. Kenshin swallowed hard and had a hard time resisting her silent beckon that bid him 'come and take me.' She'd wanted this for a long time, he knew, but he'd resisted. Maybe he had been wrong.  
  
"Kenshin," she murmured. "Tell me what you want. I'm yours to command."  
  
Blinking quickly, he looked at her in shock. "What I want?" He thought for a moment, trying to find the words to express what he felt. "What I truly want... is for you to tell me what you want."  
  
It was Kaoru's turn to be perplexed. All her life, and those before this one, she had been used to lying back and waiting to be instructed, for her pleasure to come second to whomever she happened to be with. The thought that he put her first was extremely affecting, and she found herself even more in love with him then she was before. "You mean that, Kenshin?"  
  
He smiled at her as he crawled his way on top of her body. "With everything that I am. What do you want from me?"  
  
With her lips against his, she answered, "I want to teach you how to love."  
  
"Let us teach each other."

* * *

Fingers running up and down the soft skin of Kaoru's back, Kenshin laid quietly next to her and listened to her deep, even breathing. Briefly, his mind entertained the idea that perhaps he wore her out, and he smirked slightly. A man he remained, despite his caring and concern.  
  
Kaoru's peaceful breathing was intermittently broken by her gentle sighs, and he couldn't help but wonder what she was dreaming. He hoped that she didn't have nightmares anymore, and more than anything he hoped that his presence helped to tame her demons and her presence did his.  
  
It was amazing how, within the space of a few hours, she had somehow been able to show him what it truly meant to love someone. What it meant to give oneself freely and ask nothing in return, but know that you would be repaid. She was beautiful, in every sense of the word, and she was teaching him to be beautiful, as strange as it sounded.  
  
"Kenshin?" Her voice was sleepy and soft.  
  
"Did I wake you?"  
  
"No," she whispered. "Kenshin?"  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"I love you."  
  
For a moment he couldn't remember how to respond, sentiment choking his voice and rendering him silent. He nuzzled his nose against her neck and kissed her, nipping at her skin to mark her again as his. She smiled and stretched, her body sliding against his. Reaching down, she pulled his head up to meet her lips with his.  
  
"I love you, Kaoru," he mumbled as they parted for breath.  
  
"I know," she replied with a grin. "Show me again, Kenshin."  
  
He pulled their bodies together, intent on showing her everything his heart felt.

* * *

"Tonight, Kaoru," Kenshin said as they sat at the kitchen table, eating a late breakfast. "We have to leave for Ireland tonight."  
  
"Alright," she replied, her fingers toying at the hem of his oversized shirt. "You have the tickets?"  
  
"No, but trust me, I can get them."  
  
She nodded and fell silent, musing on rain, mist, and autumn and all the things that she remembered from Ireland. All the things that could go terribly wrong now were assailing her mind, but she forced herself to leave them alone. Life was uncertain, she had to remember that.

* * *

Kenshin was blasting The Cure's new album as they packed, and Kaoru couldn't help but nod her head to the beat. The redheaded man made it seem so simplistic to just pack up and leave a place, she'd only had to put the idea in his mind. When she asked him about leaving all of his expensive belongings behind, all his furniture and his big-screen television, his motorcycle, he simply shrugged and told her that possessions were just things, that they didn't mean much to him.  
  
Kaoru shoved some clothes and personal items in a bag, she didn't have much to start with, stashing the few statuettes that she'd bought among the apparel, and she found herself finished with her packing. Kenshin was nearly as swift as she, and within half an hour they were ready to go with nothing to do. Kenshin had earlier gone to the bank to make a rather sizeable withdrawal from his bank account, and with that done, there was nothing else they could possibly think of that they needed to do to prepare themselves.  
  
"So... that's it?" Kaoru asked, incredulous.  
  
"That would appear to be the case."  
  
"Now what?"  
  
"I have no idea."  
  
They sat down on the couch and stared at each other in semi-amazement. It seemed too easy, the plan was too simple. Somehow it had to be more complex than that.

* * *

"Now boarding..." The announcements of the airport's public address system rang in Kaoru's head as she stretched out over two chairs, her legs resting comfortably across Kenshin's lap. After all that sitting around and waiting they'd done earlier, their flight was delayed. Kenshin smiled at her sympathetically and leaned back, closing his eyes.  
  
"What luck," he sighed. "It seems that the entire airport's going to be boarded before us. Likely it's from all the red tape they're going through to allow us on the plane with our katana. A license to carry one just isn't enough in these times."  
  
Kaoru nodded her agreement. Ever since the attacks on America a few years back, airport security in many countries had been stepped up. While Britain's security were not quite the massive lines that Americans had to wait in, two people boarding a plane with deadly weapons, even if they were a bit archaic, was not something that happened every day. She breathed heavily through her nose and quietly cursed the airport staff for taking so long. Every minute that they remained in London made her more tense. They were supposed to have killed a man last night. Surely Katsura would know by now that it hadn't been done, and he would come looking for them. If he found them... she didn't even want to think about what would happen to them.

* * *

Finally, an hour and a half later, they were permitted to board the plane. Kaoru sat anxiously in her first class, window seat, fidgeting nervously until Kenshin took one of her hands in his and held her still.  
  
"You look quite suspicious," he leaned over to whisper to her. "Stop being so uneasy."  
  
"Just tell people that I don't like flying," she shot back.  
  
Kenshin raised an eyebrow. Clever, but obviously so. How was it that she thought of these things when he didn't?  
  
"Here, read a book," he said as the plane started to roll down the runway.  
  
Kaoru looked at the novel he handed her with curiosity. 'Ah, he knows me,' she thought as she read the title. Confessions of a Mask. A classic. So classic, in fact, that of course she'd read it before. How had he known that it was among her favorites? No matter, she decided as she flipped the book open to the first page and settled back to read.  
  
Kenshin smiled over at her and slipped the headphones of his portable CD player onto his head, leaning comfortably into his seat and allowing his eyes to drop closed. Kaoru chuckled when she heard him mumble something about waking him when they were in Ireland.

* * *

A/N: Ack! So short! I was going to make it longer, but it just got incredibly boring and repetitive, so I stopped. I figured a short chapter was better than nothing, right? I don't know where to go from here, so if anybody has any suggestions... well... I think I need them or I may not be able to finish. Ooo! Plan! I'm going to have a contest. Whoever thinks up the best plot twist/ending/whatever gets... I dunno... something. A virtual wheel of cheese? Hell, I don't know, I'll make you a cool picture of Kenshin or SOMETHING. (I'm good with graphics...) Because I'm bloody stuck, and I really don't want to kill off my main characters in this story. Bah, I feel like a nerd doing this, but all my creative genius keeps being whisked away to my other fics and the original story I'm working on (yes, I actually made up my own characters! :gasp::shock::amazement:)


	10. Cuts Marked in the March of Men

**Night Stalker**

MysticShadowWanderer  
  
Disclaimer: Pick me up now, I need you so bad...

* * *

Chapter Ten: Cuts Marked in the March of Men

* * *

Kenshin woke to Kaoru's slender finger poking him insistently yet discreetly in the arm. Easing his eyes open, he flipped his headphones off and raised one eyebrow at her curiously. She leaned over with a sultry expression, confusing Kenshin all the more, to whisper in his ear.  
  
"That man across the aisle and two rows up has walked back and forth by us four times now," she said, her serious tone countervailing the heated look on her face. Kenshin had to withhold a smile at her ingenuity; she wanted to give the impression that she was whispering sensuous things to him so that she wouldn't look suspicious. "He stared at us every single time," she continued. "He studied you for a long time when he thought I wasn't looking."  
  
Kenshin nodded slowly, a smile that matched the expression on her face spreading across his own. He had no difficulty acting along with her. He turned his head to brush his lips against her ear. "It's too bad we've left Kuroi Ame," he murmured, "because you have the mind of a criminal genius." Kaoru slapped him in mock playfulness, but really as a sharp reminder of how she felt about his words. "Sorry, love," he apologized swiftly, "I should learn to keep my mouth shut. Do you think he's with the syndicate?" He saw and felt her nod briefly. "We'll just have to keep an eye on him then. We can't do anything right now. I suppose it's too much to hope that he's just an innocent traveler who happened to see our katana."  
  
"Mm, very true," Kaoru agreed. "We'll have to see what happens when the plane lands, then?"  
  
"Yes." Kenshin leaned back into his seat and flashed her one last smile. "And now, I believe, that I'll go back to sleep. You wore me out last night." He winked slightly at her and she had the decency to blush, which was rather endearing.  
It hardly seemed that it could help anything to worry, Kenshin decided. They would have to deal with this when the plane landed and avoid causing commotion, which was the last thing that they needed to do. There was nothing to do but wait it out. He sighed quietly as he allowed his body to relax as much as it would, still unable to relinquish all of his remnant habits from his not so far in the past assassin days. When Kaoru was next to him, he found, though, that he could slip just a bit farther away into sleep, even on a plane.  
  
Kaoru watched as the lines of tension left Kenshin's body enough that he was able to fall into a light sleep. A smile traced across her lips as she observed him; he seemed just a little more innocent, a little less troubled, when he was sleeping like that. Even as she noted his apparent ease at being next to her, the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach worsened. None of this was going to end well; she was picking up on senses that told her something terrible was going to happen. And she knew very well whence it would come as she lifted her eyes subtly to glance at the man who'd been glancing at her. Did he know that she knew? She wondered about that. Perhaps she'd only discovered his fixation on them because of her gifts. But it seemed too euphemistic to believe that. He knew who they were, and he would likely try to kill them.  
  
Death had a certain way of raining on anyone's parade.

* * *

"Please fasten your seatbelts, as we have entered the landing pattern and will be arriving at the airport shortly."  
  
Kaoru shook an awakening Kenshin by the shoulder, an action that she made more out of habit than necessity. It surprised her that he'd slept through the entire flight, but she didn't question that at the moment. What worried her most right then was the steady gaze that the man fixed on them. Something would happen. The utter lack of fear in those dark brown eyes put her on edge and told her that he either didn't know who Battousai was, or was very powerful. She hoped it was the former.  
  
"Be still, love," Kenshin murmured as he laced his fingers with hers. "If it happens, then it happens."  
  
Kaoru blinked at him once and then stopped fidgeting. It wouldn't be long until the plane landed, and she wanted to be centered mentally and emotionally before anything happened. Kenshin was right and simplistically profound in his words.  
  
"If it happens, then it happens," she mused, the words slipping out not quite under her breath.  
  
There was no time to worry about anything, there was just time to act and respond. The question was, did they want to be the catalysts or the reactants?

* * *

"Himura."  
  
They ignored the voice and walked straight on, their bags slung over their shoulders, although Kenshin's hand was slowly caressing the hilt of his katana that hung at his hip. Purposefully they strode forward, saying nothing as they increased their pace just slightly.  
  
"Himura! Kamiya!"  
  
There was no mistaking it, the voice was full of ill-intent. Kenshin lengthened his stride a bit more, causing Kaoru to struggle to keep up with him. He refused to let the public get involved with this. They could not get into a conflict in the middle of an airport. Hand shaking just slightly with anger, he released his katana to grip Kaoru's elbow firmly and force her to walk faster.  
  
"Himura, you're making the wrong choice."  
  
People were stopping to stare as the odd group was almost running through the airport. Kenshin blinked rapidly as they burst through the sliding glass doors and into the sunlight. Thankful that it wasn't raining, he attempted to catch the attention of a taxidriver when he felt a large, strong hand grab him by the arm. He wrenched to the side, pulling his arm free, and spun to glare at the figure. His eyes narrowed to meet the challenge in the other man's eyes.  
  
"What do you want?" Kenshin hissed, his voice lower than usual.  
  
"You owe us something," came the enigmatic answer. Kaoru glanced back and forth from one man to the other, wondering how this would turn out.  
  
"I owe nothing to anyone."  
  
"Kuroi Ame, and Katsura, happens to believe otherwise."  
  
"I hardly see how that concerns me."  
  
"You know the rules," the man said, obviously becoming frustrated by Kenshin's obstinance. "You owe us your service or your life. But I suppose this pretty thing here would suffice." His fingers slipped under Kaoru's chin to tilt her head so that he might look at her more closely.  
  
Kenshin's katana would have taken the man's fingers off had he not moved his hand swiftly, all while chuckling. It was sick, Kaoru thought. Was there no respect for human life here at all? Because to her there was nothing worse than the blatant disrespect for a human life.  
  
"Now, now sweetheart," the man said, his voice suddenly reminiscent of the hiss of a snake, "just because I'm going to kill the precious man you've been fucking doesn't mean that you have to look so pissed at me."  
  
Now Kaoru's hand was resting against the hilt of her katana and the motion didn't pass their aggressor unnoticed. He laughed openly and loudly, and Kaoru had to grit her teeth together painfully to keep herself in check.  
  
"What's the matter, darling? Can't handle a man?"  
  
Her patience was wearing thin, Kenshin noted just before he stepped between her and the dark haired man. He glared up at the man, eyes hardening and taking on an amber hue. This man had a way of getting under their skins, and the worst thing of all was that he didn't recognize the stranger. It was odd, because he had generally been aware of all the activities going on within Kuroi Ame, and this was a man he didn't know.  
  
"It will be me and you then, Himura?"  
  
Kenshin nodded, his eyes reverting fully to amber. Distantly, as if through a wall, he heard Kaoru's despairing groan, her emotion too full to be expressed with any sort of word created by man, but he ignored it. Settling into a stance that was too familiar, he tilted his head at his opponent, a silent but firm challenge.  
  
'This cannot be happening. He cannot kill again, not so soon!' Kaoru was shouting in her mind, but none of these words could escape her closed throat.  
  
"That's what I like to see," the man said, sinking into his own stance and unsheathing a katana that Kaoru, surprisingly, hadn't noticed before. "After I kill you, Battousai, I will have your pretty little plaything here... again and again and again."  
  
A low growl stole from Kenshin as he prepared to lunge at the man in a full attack. Kaoru finally screamed, but it was no use now. Her mind raced far faster than the moves of the two men, and she found herself remembering just one line of a song that she'd listened to with Kenshin. And now was the time to act, she knew.  
  
Kenshin froze when he saw his challenger stop abruptly in mid-strike and cough out blood. Taking a few wild steps backward, Kenshin shook his head roughly to make sense of it. Kaoru stood, head down and hair haloing her as if she were a dark angel, with her katana plunged straight through the man's chest. Slowly, as if to draw out the drama of the moment, the man slipped backward and fell to the ground, lifeless eyes rolling back in his head. Kaoru's katana clattered to the concrete and she sank to her knees, her body trembling fiercely. Kenshin put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a look of utter bewilderment when she glanced up at him.  
  
"For you, my love... I would kill him," she whispered just before she too fell forward, only avoiding hitting the cold ground as Kenshin dropped his own katana and caught her gently in his arms.  
  
She was bleeding, Kenshin realized as her blood dripped slowly onto his bent legs. Then he looked down to see the katana that was still firmly lodged in her lower stomach. A desperate, panicked cry choked out of him and he clutched her to him. He had almost lost her once, and she would not die for him. But who would be able to treat her, a murderer on the run?  
  
"Kenshin, jump in, hurry!" The voice was familiar.  
  
He was so shocked that he might have cried when he glanced up to see Sanosuke leaning out of the back seat of a large Lincoln Towncar, holding out a hand to him. As if he'd somehow acquired a personal angel that had just appeared to help him in his time of need. Without hesitation, not wondering even who was behind the wheel, he lifted Kaoru and gently placed her in the car, paying only fleeting attention to Sanosuke, who was crawling up into the passenger seat.  
  
"Thank God," Kenshin murmured. "Thank God." He could say nothing else.  
  
"No need to thank me," Sanosuke quipped. "I just do what I can."  
  
Kenshin didn't answer from where he cradled Kaoru's head in his lap, stroking her hair repeatedly. She was hurt so badly, and it was all his fault. All because he had been willing to kill again. This wasn't right.

* * *

It didn't matter which hospital they were in, all of them were the same. Kaoru was still hurt and it was still his fault. What kind of a man was he? To so easily throw away a vow... And those words she'd spoken to him... He couldn't even think them at the moment, it was too much.  
  
"Please, let her live," he was whispering, his eyes closed and hands folded in prayer. "I have never asked for anything before in my life, but if she dies now... I die with her. Don't let her die. She needs to live. I need to live."  
  
Sanosuke watched his longtime friend's fervent prayer from an orange plastic chair just across the room. Something told him that Kenshin needed space at the moment, and though he was just as worried for Kaoru as the smaller man was, he left conversation alone for a while.  
  
"Is that girl going to be alright?" the man sitting next to Sanosuke whispered. Sano shrugged.  
  
The words were loud enough for Kenshin to hear, and he looked up, seemingly noticing the man for the first time. He blinked rapidly as if to adjust his vision. It was the bartender from London. What had Sanosuke been thinking, or drinking for that matter, that could have made him believe that this was a good idea. Then again, how had Sano known where to show up in the first place?  
  
But those were all questions for another time. Right now he was only worried about Kaoru. Those words she'd said to him rang in his head.  
  
'For you, my love... I would kill him.'

* * *

A/N: :sigh: What a beautiful sentiment... Seriously. I love that line... It's from Coheed & Cambria's song entitled "Cuts Marked in the March of Men" (hence the chapter title), and it fucking rocks. Coheed & Cambria is a band of godly awesomeness. I have seriously wanted to use that line since.... oh... the second or third chapter. I've had it in mind for about three months now. It's odd how it's taken me so long to finish this story. I never step back and put it in prospective timewise, and it's interesting how long it takes to finish writing. Anyhow, in conclusion, I am wasting precious minutes of sleep to get this to you people, so you damn well better appreciate it. It is now 12.20 AM and I have school tomorrow. I have trouble waking up when I get a solid 9 hours of sleep (which almost never happens, by the way). And I'm going to get... what... 5... 6? If I'm lucky. APPRECIATE MY LACK OF SLEEP! I have a cold... Bleh... I should stop ranting before I piss someone off. Oh well. Everyone needs to rant every now and then. And I just lost an hour or something of sleep to bring you this chapter, so I deserve it. Want to know what's annoying? Having an awesome picture in my head of a piece I want to draw... and then it doesn't come out right. I hate that. The longer I look at my work, the uglier it gets. I hate that too. Because it SHOULD be flawless. But it's not. And that's annoying. :shameless plug time: Go read my story on I'm Kurenai Seito on there, and the story's called Broken Wings. Read, slaves, read! :currently indulging in her fantasy to be the Mistress of all the world::hasn't worked out so far::damn: I should go to bed now. I'm going to. Goodnight, all! (you'll all probably be reading this in the afternoon, too.... heh...) 


	11. Endings

**Night Stalker**

MysticShadowWanderer

Disclaimer: Ah, who cares? I'm baaaaaaaaack!

* * *

Chapter Eleven: Endings

* * *

"God, if there is a god, if you can hear me at all, I am begging you." 

The words were a litany to Sanosuke's ears, or that was what he was pretending, trying in vain to lighten Kenshin's mood in the slightest or at least get the smaller man's mind off Kaoru's condition for even the shortest amount of time. For days Kenshin had been praying, and Sano was beginning to wonder if he himself shouldn't utter a few words to the heavens above for Kaoru's sake. He'd never seen Kenshin in this state and it was frightening to him. For Kenshin to believe in God at all...

Then again, Sano had never really known what Kenshin thought about religion. It just seemed a given that, as an assassin, he didn't believe in much of anything but the betterment of the human race. And it was easy to see where that had led them all. An ex-assassin crying and praying as if his own life depended on it (though Sano thought that it was quite possibly true), a bartender-turned-criminal sleeping in an uncomfortable plastic chair and looking entirely out of place, a street fighter and assistant to an assassin who was now out of a job and was feeling extremely displeased with where his life was going, and a young woman lying on a hospital bed so close to death that all the occupants of the room could practically smell it.

"God, what a mess this has turned into," Sanosuke mused aloud. Kenshin's tear-stained face lifted in recognition of the voice as if he hadn't known the other man was in the room. "I'm sorry, Kenshin. I really am."

"I know Sano," was the hoarsely whispered reply. "We're all sorry..."

Nothing had gone the way it should.

* * *

"Dammit, this is getting old," Kaoru muttered as she stumbled through the dark. 

Attempting to suppress a shiver that won out in the end, she desperately tried to brush some of the water from her arms. The story was raging above her again, the scenario all too familiar. The instant her eyes had opened to the darkness she had known she was dead again. This time, though, she was determined to known what it was beneath her feet that snapped and squished with every struggling step she took. When the lightning flashed, she glanced downward, only to clutch at her heart and be violently sick moments later. Some unnamed body was staring blankly back up at her; it took all of her willpower not to scream out loud.

"Dear God, what kind of place is this?"

The only option was to scramble to the light that in her head she was telling herself not to go towards. Fate had such a cruel sense of humor. Why was the journey so much more difficult this time? she wondered as she lurched ahead with every footfall. After what felt like an eternity of forcing her way through a field of bloody, battered corpses, she fell forward, thinking only to faint before the brilliant, comforting light. When she felt strong arms around her, saving her from the painful ground, she gasped and looked up. Tears stung at her eyes as she stared into his face. This wasn't happening.

"Kenshin?" her voice wavered as she breathed his name.

"God, Kaoru," he choked. "I'm so sorry... so fucking sorry... It's all my fault..."

She hushed him with two bloodstained fingers against his lips; he kissed her fingers fervently, desperately.

"Darling, you have nothing to be sorry for. You're alive again. You can live. Don't you see what that means?"

He shook his head, clenching his jaw to stop from whimpering with his tears. Finally gaining her balance, ignorant to her surroundings, Kaoru wrapped her arms around him, pressing herself against his chest.

"No, Kaoru, I'd rather die than leave you here alone."

It was Kaoru's turn to shake her head. "It's not your time yet, Kenshin. You still have so many good things to do, so many lives to touch."

"That's bullshit! Don't try to make this better with pretty words!"

Kaoru swallowed hard, but couldn't fight back the sob that tore its way free from her throat. "Kenshin, I am dead. I don't know why you're here, why you're holding me, but you know this is the last time. I don't want to ruin this by arguing or with words at all, because they mean so little. Please, just tell me you love me."

"Oh God, Kaoru, I love you. I love you."

She smiled. "I love you too."

A sigh brushed past his skin as she hid her face in the crook of her neck like she did when she was afraid or ashamed of herself. Her tears were warm as they slithered down his neck, and when she broke down, so did he. Together they sank to the ground, clutching each other and simply crying. This was the last time, he thought in a panic, the last time he could see her cry, the last time he could hold her, the last time he could tell her how much he loved her.

It could have been moments or it could have been years before they were torn apart. Kaoru felt large, strong hands pulling her back by the shoulders, and Kenshin looked as if he were drifting far away from her, his violet eyes wide and bewildered.

"NO!"

* * *

Kenshin jolted awake. 

"Oh God."

She was gone; he didn't need to be told to know it. He had been there. Sanosuke looked on in respectful and mournful silence as Kenshin climbed into the hospital bed, cradling Kaoru's body in his arms and sobbing.

"Oh God."

But Kenshin knew. He didn't know what would happen for other people, but for him, there was no God and no solace. There was only a body in his arms, once so warm beneath his touch that was slowly turning clod, the pounding rain outside the window, and her lingering scream in his ear.

And he was so alone.

* * *

A/N: Ah, Hell. I come back with this. What the fuck is up with that...? I don't know, I thought I would have all these great ideas after taking such a long time off (at least my laptop is fixed though!), and I come up with this crap. I think I just needed to finish this story. I sort of wrote myself into a corner, and I tried to get out of it and have a happy ending, but I don't like happy endings anyhow, so that didn't go so well. Sorry about how cruel this ending was. I tried, I really did. Maybe one day I'll go back and fix it (unlikely). Then again, this story always was just for fun... I don't know, for some reason I'm not as into my fanfiction as I used to be. I'm not really into anything right now, though, I'm just really depressed... I'm sure I'll bounce back and be able to write like I used to. 


End file.
